17 May 2015

The Minister of Health, Ms Dorcas Makgato, has requested the public to take ownership of their health.

Giving an update on her ministry’s performance recently, Ms Makgato said they were working hard to transform the health care system and urged the public to take health issues seriously as it was their responsibility.

She said there was still a low uptake of health programmes such as male circumcision, condom use and HIV testing. The minister also noted that there was a rise in non-communicable diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

She said the public was still lacking behind on taking health as their responsibility and urged the nation to start taking care of their health status. She said if the public took care of its health, lifestyle diseases could be cured without any medical attention.

She pointed out that lifestyle diseases were caused primarily by the habits of people such as bad food habits and physical inactivity. The health minister advised people to eat fried food sparingly to avoid lifestyle diseases such as obesity, depression, chronic backache, diabetes and hypertension. 

Ms Makgato said a healthy lifestyle must be adopted by the nation  to combat these diseases. The minister also urged people to consult doctors and or visit health facilities for check-ups even if they were feeling well, noting that some diseases were silent killers. 

She said it has to become routine for everyone to have a yearly check-up with a doctor even if they were feeling perfectly well. She noted that the check-up would detect and fix any problems at an early stage, adding that an earlier treatment would also improve final outcomes and would possibly save lifes.

Ms Makgato said the paradigm shift from curative to preventative health would ensure that people were attended to curb the advent of full blown diseases.

On other issues Ms Makgato said her ministry was working on improving services, adding that they were currently establishing a programme management office for improved project coordination and management including outsourced services.

She stated that they were also in the process of implementing part-time employment for retired nurses and specialists or private practitioners.

To improve accountability, the minister said they have adopted a management walk-about at district hospitals to monitor what was happening at the facilities. ENDS