http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article466568.ece/2010-LOC-in-court-over-tender-information

Jabulani Sikhakhane

mabheki65@mweb.co.za

REPORTS last week of yet more deaths of babies in public hospitals are a reminder of how threadbare the promise is by our political leadership that the hosting of the 2010 Fifa World Cup will leave a lasting legacy.

It’s a shame that a country that invests more than R1bn in building and upgrading existing healthcare infrastructure in order to meet the requirements set by the gods of world soccer is nevertheless incapable of preventing the deaths of its babies .

Soon after the death of six infants at the Charlotte Maxeke Academic hospital hit the headlines last week, a report came through of 11 deaths at the Natalspruit hospital. Later in the week, the SABC reported that 200 premature babies had died between January and this month at the Nelson Mandela Academic hospital in the Eastern Cape because of poor ventilation and oxygen systems.

Nurses in Johannesburg hospitals, the Sunday Independent reported yesterday, have warned that more babies may die if the government does not move fast to improve the quality of healthcare facilities. They said autoclaves (sterilisers) at Charlotte Maxeke’s neonatal unit had not been tested for months. Autoclaves, which prevent infection by equipment, ought to be tested daily .

Contrast the causes of these deaths with the huge investments that this country has had to make as well as the time and effort that public health leaders have dedicated to meeting Fifa’s requirements. Such effort could have been focused on rallying public healthcare workers to ensure that unnecessary deaths are reduced.

“In the health sector, we invested over R1bn in buildings, emergency vehicles, medical equipment, training of essential support staff and health professionals over the last four years,” the late deputy minister of health Molefi Sefularo said last month. “We are confident that 2010 World Cup will leave a great legacy as all the resources that were made available to us, all assets that we acquired and systems that we have put in place will remain in the health sector long after the tournament for use by all South Africans.”

As the continued deaths of babies illustrate, not all South Africans will benefit from the World Cup-related investments in public health infrastructure. This is because our political leaders have missed the golden opportunity of using the hosting of the World Cup as a lever to mobilise the entire public healthcare system to improve its services.

Also, Fifa’s healthcare requirements bear no relation to the country’s most pressing healthcare problems. As the Lancet’s Series on SA published last year argued, SA “faces a convergence of several health challenges. In addition to HIV and tuberculosis epidemics, a very high burden of morbidity and mortality results from violence and injury, chronic diseases, mental health disorders, and maternal, neonatal, and child mortality.”

The series also pointed out that the combination of acute and chronic diseases spanning all age groups and socioeconomic strata “imposes a massive burden on an already weak and underdeveloped public healthcare delivery system struggling to overcome poor administrative management, low morale, lack of funding, and brain drain”.

It noted too that SA’s public healthcare expenditure was skewed toward tertiary hospitals: 30% is spent on supertertiary hospitals in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban. “Although these hospitals have important regional referral and educational roles, health needs are countrywide and most will not be met by high-level centralised services.”

The series called for a comprehensive primary healthcare system targeted to the needs and available resources of the country. Such an approach, Lancet said, called for attention to the social determinants of health and the building capacity for delivery of cost- effective interventions to the poorest and most vulnerable individuals.

“The perspective of the healthcare service needs to change from focusing on servicing of immediate medical needs to becoming responsible for maintaining community health. A district model of care would bring service management closer to the community, and create an increasingly democratic and equitable health service.”

The series suggested that the lives of almost 50000 newborn babies and children could be saved in 2015 if SA reached high and effective levels of prevention of mother-to- child transmission of HIV, as well as intrapartum and newborn care. Improvement in these areas would help the country meet the Millennium Development Goals, a key watermark for socioeconomic development agreed to by world leaders in 2000.

It is doubtful how close to these goals SA’s compliance with Fifa standards for public healthcare will get the country . For sure, SA may win worldwide acclaim for meeting Fifa requirements, but such acclaim will be meaningless as long as this country’s public healthcare system continues to fail the poor .

- Sikhakhane is a freelance writer.

Monday’s brilliant and insightful column by Peter Bruce (The Thick End of the Wedge, May 17) provides a possible explanation to a problem I am facing and about which I planned to write to you today.

At the weekend I received our May Eskom electricity account. It was 50% higher than the previous month and more than double the amount for the same period two years ago. I suppose this is to ensure the so-called wealthy carry the brunt of the increase, minimising the effect on the indigent. I have no problem with that; it is the magnitude of the increase that shocked me. If it continues like this for the next two years of the planned 35% per annum increase, the cost of electricity in our home in 2012 will be over four times what it was in 2008.(Our rate per kilowatt-hour has risen from 34c to 80c for the bulk of our consumption)

We all know Eskom was denied the funds it requested 12 years ago to invest in new equipment and that we are now paying a price for this. That money was spent instead on the arms deal (about R60bn); Gautrain (about R25bn); and the World Cup (about R30bn). When our country was in such desperate need for teacher training colleges, schools, improved health services, housing, water and electricity, our leaders thought it preferable to spent this vast amount of money on projects that would boost their self-esteem. It is highly unlikely any of these three will contribute to the long-term welfare of the vast majority of South Africans, who will still be poor and unhoused when these projects are behind us.

Thank you Mr Bruce for explaining why this is.

Roger Sinclair

Morningside

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20100518111054693C976928

http://www.timeslive.co.za/opinion/columnists/article454596.ece/So-what-happens-afterwards-

This is what happens when you hold a 5 star party in a shack.

http://www.watersolutions.co.za/tag/green-drop-report/