Gauteng health visits Pretoria West
The department says that the inspiration behind the effort is to address the barriers to adequate healthcare by bringing services to the people.
Gauteng health recently started its door-to-door health awareness campaign in Saulsville, Pretoria West.
The department said that the inspiration behind the effort was to address the barriers hindering residents from receiving adequate healthcare by bringing services closer to their homes.
Under #Asibehealthy, the campaign started at Saulsville hostel and Greenker informal settlement on February 3, and the department said that it intends to visit five other health districts across the province.
The campaign was by the Gauteng government’s township, informal settlement, hostels (TISH) programme to ensure that residents in disadvantaged areas were not left out concerning access to healthcare services.
Some of the services on offer to residents included HIV and TB screening, immunisation, family planning, chronic treatment, oral health, vitamin A supplements and deworming as well as pap smears and prostate-specific agents (PSA) to detect signs of cervical or prostate cancer.
MEC for Health and Wellness Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, who attended the launch, said: “We still want to advise the public of our referral pathways which require patients to receive the right level of care at the appropriate facility. At the heart of this is the role of primary health care as hospitals offer a higher level of care after patients are transferred from clinics.”
The department also taught residents about the importance of eating healthy, maintaining food gardens, knowing one’s health status and participating in physical activities such as fun walks and aerobics classes.
“It is important to improve health outcomes among Gauteng residents. We have picked up that there are still many people who default on their treatment for various reasons. We will be reaching out even to those people to assist them to keep to their treatment programmes,” Nkomo-Ralehoko concluded.
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