Hospital to conduct health awareness campaign

PORT Shepstone Regional Hospital will hold its healthy lifestyle awareness campaign at St Martin de Porres School at 10am this Saturday, May 30.

“Many people seem to have dropped their guard about lifestyle diseases while paying more attention to HIV/Aids, yet recent statistics show that lifestyle diseases are now listed as the underlying cause of many deaths and amputations,” said the hospital’s spokesman Phumza Morai.

She added that the hospital has therefore seen a need to engage the public and provide important information which will help people make better decisions about their lives in the future.

“Working towards promoting a healthy lifestyle, the hospital management and the staff from the medical wards are inviting members of the public to an awareness campaign,” she added.

A team of nurses, dietitians and pharmacists from the Port Shepstone Regional Hospital will be offering health screening services. These include hypertension, diabetes, body mass index, voluntary counselling and testing (HIV/Aids), peak flow chest readings and doctor counselling.

They will also provide information on how non-communicable illnesses can be controlled. “If these health conditions can be avoided, it will decrease the re-admission rate, cut down defaulters and thereby increase people’s life expectancy,” she said. “The campaign will be performed by trained health care professionals from our institution.”