Cape Town - The Western Cape has made huge strides in improving women’s health.
Statistics provided by the provincial Department of Health show that maternal mortality has almost halved in five years while antenatal check-ups have gone up.
The head of health in the province, Craig Househam, said that while working in the public health sector wasn’t “glamorous and at times quite crappy”, the province had a good story to tell.
The drop in maternal mortality from 107.69 for every 100 000 births to 60, and reduction of HIV transmission from mothers to babies to less than two percent, were some of the success stories in the Western Cape.
Addressing the media, along with Health MEC Theuns Botha, about the state of health in province over the past five years, Househam also revealed that the number of HIV-positive patients on antiretrovirals would go from 75 000 in 2009 to more than 150 000 by the end of this year.
In 2009 the prevention of mother-to-child transmission was at 3.6 percent, but this had dropped to 1.9 percent between 2011/2012, while the rate of first antenatal visits before 20 weeks increased from 46.4 percent during the same period to 58 percent last year.
Househam said the province was leading the country when it came to condom distribution, having increased from 38.8 percent five years ago to 54 percent last year.
About 100 million condoms were distributed last year. This figure was consistent with a survey by the SA Institute of Race Relations which found that condom distribution in the province had increased by more than 800 percent in the past 10 years, from a meagre 4.9 condoms per male 15 years and older to 45.7 condoms by 2011.
The province also boasted a R2.7bn investment in health infrastructure, including clinics, ambulance stations and disaster management centres, over the past four years.
About 17 clinics were either built or refurbished, including 12 ambulance and disaster management stations, eight district hospitals and five pathology laboratories, among others.
Some of the major infrastructure developments were the new Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain hospitals.
New ARV centres were built in Crossroads, Gugulethu, Khayelitsha’s Michael Mapongwana and Retreat. Renovations were completed at facilities in Vredenburg, Riversdale, Valkenberg and Eerste River.
Ambulance stations were built in Leeu Gamka, Tulbagh, Lambert’s Bay, Vredendal and Kwanokuthula in Plettenberg Bay.
Botha attributed the department’s success to good management, saying the provincial Department of Health was probably the best-managed division in the country.
He said that while the department had its “fault lines” due to service pressures and its enormity, “there are more successes than failures”.
Cape Argus