A good year for public health in Joburg

The City has been hard at work this year and MMC for health and social development Dr Mpho Phalatse said she was able to bring significant changes to her sectors that continue to have a profound impact on Joburg communities, City Buzz reports.

Phalatse has the following message for residents this festive season:

“The highlight of the year has been the continued rolling out of extended operating hours to our clinics following the successes of the project at Princess Clinic in Roodepoort last November.

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“Since April, we were able to extend the hours of service to five more clinics – Freedom Park Clinic, Hikinsile Clinic, Randburg Clinic, Zandspruit Clinic and Albert Street Clinic. All five clinics have a dedicated social worker who will ensure that comprehensive social services are offered within the extended service hours at the clinics but will also render community outreach [services] when necessary.”

According to Phalatse, the department will continue with the extended operating hours’ programme at more clinics to bring quality health services to the people of Joburg.

“As part of our Early Childhood Development [ECD] strategy the City has entered into a partnership with Hollard Trust, an organisation with a successful track record in supporting local government in implementing efficient and responsive ECD programmes. Our priority in the next four years is to increase the number of children accessing these programmes.”

Due to the fact that more than 50 000 children in 17 of the City‘s wards do not have access to ECD programmes, the City’s goal is to bring more young children into the system to help improve their start in education, said Phalatse.

“We also aim to increase the number of compliant ECD facilities, giving our parents the peace of mind that the ECD where [their] children go is safe. All our ECD centres must comply. The biggest golden ticket for the City is to impact the nutritional value that our little ones will receive from these centres.”

The provincial department of social development provides a nutritional grant to compliant ECD facilities. At this point, the majority of centres are not accessing this grant because they are not compliant with the city bylaws, said Phalatse.

“In September, we launch our drug-rehabilitation programme that will be linked to some of our clinics as part of our holistic health strategy. The other four rehab centres will be located in Region B at Westbury Clinic, Region E at River Park Clinic, Alexandra, Region F at Joubert Park Clinic and Region G at Eldorado Park Extension 9 Clinic.”

Assessment and pre-counselling clinical services, as well as detoxification and social work services, will be offered.

According to Phalatse plans for next year include the continued roll-out of extended service hours at the clinics and to continue bringing other health services closer to the Joburg communities.

“The extension of hours to our clinics has already had a profound impact, and we will continue to respond adequately to calls from our people.”

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