Hon Speaker, uppermost in our minds, at this time, must be the Millennium Development Goals. This is especially so as two-thirds of the deadline has already passed and Goal 4, which commits us to reducing child mortality by two-thirds, is proving to be extremely problematic. Instead of going down, child mortality statistics are, in fact, going up.
If you are expecting a baby either in the O R Tambo district or the Eastern Cape generally, there is a terrifying likelihood that your baby will die at birth. At present half of all babies do.
A nurse working at an Eastern Cape hospital over the past five years said she had never come across babies dying at such an alarming rate. In addition, countless more won't make it through their first year.
Tragically, while the situation in the Eastern Cape is particularly shocking, the reality is not far different for the majority of people throughout South Africa. Gross understaffing, unpaid debts, poor infection control, slack administration, lack of finances, pathetic management skills in our hospitals, dysfunctional referral systems, dismal ambulance services, inefficient primary health, lack of control over spending and blatant corruption leave little wonder that we are living this nightmare.
Who will care about democracy if we continue to bury our sons and daughters along with our hopes and dreams for their future? The ACDP welcomes efforts to ensure that all HIV-positive children under one year old are now being put on antiretroviral theraphy, ART, regardless of their CD4 counts.
While the department has introduced new and better guidelines for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission, MTCT, more needs to be done to ensure it reaches those who are affected and at risk.
While the tragically high number of baby deaths in hospitals is linked to overcrowding at hospitals as the needs of people with HIV/Aids place hospitals under enormous pressure, budgets are not the only concern; attitude, training, discipline and good practice are just as critical. Public-private initiatives are not being pursued with enough urgency and determination.
The ACDP calls on government to access and utilise private expertise to deliver the services with and on behalf of the state. If we do not get this right as other countries have, moves to implement a National Health Insurance will only further exacerbate the situation. I thank you.