Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals

A strong focus on healthcare-infrastructure development is making healthcare more accessible for citizens across the Northern Cape.

The premier of the Northern Cape has identified the quality of care, better health outcomes and the making of more services available to more citizens as healthcare priorities for her government. Although much has been done in recent years, the challenges faced in achieving these goals remain formidable. The provincial government will spend R2.2-billion on health in 2009/10.

A key component of a 10-point plan to improve healthcare involves improving infrastructure. The national infrastructure plan will continue to deliver financial support for the province’s plans for several years. A concrete manifesation of improved infrastructure came in January 2010 with the refurbishment of the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at the Kimberley Hospital Complex. Furthermore, this important project also showed what can be done when the private sector (BHP Billiton and Carte Blanche) combines with the public sector.

At the launch of the upgraded unit, Premier Hazel Jenkins described the Kimberley Hospital Complex as ‘the foundation of health service delivery in Kimberley and the province’.

The province has a further 13 district hospitals, one regional hospital, three TB hospitals and seven community hospitals. In early 2010, new clinics were opened at Hartswater and Pampierstad. The upgrading of Tshwaragano Hospital is proceeding during 2010, while the business plan for a new hospital at De Aar has been approved. Construction of the new regional hospital at Upington (a 267-bed facility) is expected to be completed late in 2011.

Good progress has been made in stemming the prevalence rate of HIV and Aids in the province, but the incidence of syphilis and TB remain major areas of concern. The national Department of Health is driving the Khomanani campaign, aimed at communicating information on HIV and Aids, sexually transmitted diseases and TB. A mass vaccination campaign against the H1N1 influenza virus is planned for 2010.

Medi-Clinic is the only one of South Africa’s three major private healthcare companies with a presence in the Northern Cape although the other two have facilities in nearby towns: Kroonstad and Bloemfontein (Netcare) and Klerksdorp (Life Healthcare).

The 234-bed Kimberley Medi-Clinic offers a comprehensive service. The Upington Medi-Clinic has 40 beds while the third Medi-Clinic hospital in the Northern Cape is at Kathu, in the far-north.


 





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