Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba recently pledged an additional R50 million toward healthcare in the City of Johannesburg, starting with the adjustment budget early next year.
The mayor said the City shares the commitment by Global Citizen, who recently brought the Global Citizen Festival Mandela 100 to Johannesburg, to addressing the challenge of extreme poverty and improving the quality of life of those who call it home. This is also in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goal of ensuring healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
Photo by Mail & Guardian
One of these challenges has been in improving access to healthcare, particularly, for those person living with HIV.
In order to improve access to healthcare, in October 2016, Mayor Mashaba launched the “Extended Operating Hours” project at City-run clinics, noting that residents do not only fall ill between 8 am and 4 pm . To date, 17 clinics of the City’s 82 clinics have extended their operating hours to ensure that our most vulnerable residents have greater access to primary healthcare. This number is set to increase to 26 by June 2019.
“Since the project was launched, a total of 948 000 patients have visited these clinics during normal operating hours, and an additional 216 000 patients during their extended hours. The programme has effectively increased the reach of our clinics by 22%,” Mashaba said.
“As a show of our commitment to addressing the issue of poverty, inequality and the associated social ills, in January 2019 the City will be tabling a budget adjustment to increase the allocation to the Department of Health and Social Development by R50 million to expand these programmes in order to reach more residents,” he added.
The City will be also expanding the A Re Sebetseng programme to include A Re Sebetseng Health, aimed at encouraging private doctors and nurses to volunteer their time to assist the City to provide much-need primary health care to more residents.
Global Citizen supported the City with the A Re Sebetseng clean-up campaign in the run-up to the Mandela 100 Festival, in so doing demonstrating the power of public-private partnerships in solving global problems.
In order to address the broader issue of access to primary healthcare, in the 2018/19 budget, passed earlier this year, the City also committed R12.5 million to a programme to introduce mobile clinics into the City. These mobile clinics will serve to bring primary healthcare to those residents who would otherwise not have access to even basic treatment facilities.
