NCDs integrated persons centred health servicies

Most of the South African health services are provided in siloes contrary to the sustainable development agenda. This document shows civil society’s vision of integrated care to the NDoH Technical Committee. It highlights integrated care is a multi-dimensional continuum and stacked with multiple axes.The focus is on “all of society” and “all of government. ”

#1 killers in South Africa = strokes & diabetes

In the death stakes #1 is the position to avoid. Stroke and diabetes are the 2nd and 3rd main causes of death in South Africa according to the 2014 figures just released by StatisticsSA. TB remains in unenviable pole position but the number of deaths are dropping each year. Great news.

The ranking looks very different if diabetes and heart/ blood vessel disease are grouped. This makes sense because essentially they kill you in the same way, by cardiovascular diseases (CVD.) So this is what the figures look like done that way around

  • 18.7%  CVD  (stroke, heart attacks, diabetes and other heart conditions) with <0.2% national budget and NO  provincial NCDs budgets

health budget by programme

  • 13.2%   TB &  HIV/AIDS with 39.6% funding (see figure 2 right.)

Deaths from NCDs increase every year while HIV/AIDS and TB deaths have declined each year since 2007. And that is really good news. (See figure above.) However, it is disheartening that NCDs deaths continue upwards.

TB leads the number of deaths in the 15-64 age groups. The between 15-44 years infections are the big killers with HIV/AIDS in 2nd spot. NCDs don’t feature in the top ten but this changes in those over 44 year. NCDs play a much more important part.

How cost effective is screening 8 million people with diabetes and hypertension  via the HIV/AIDS Counselling and Testing (HCT) programme?  The stats seem to indicate different target age groups for HCT versus NCDs screening which is for at least those older than 45 years. What do you think?

The provincial ranking places the Western Cape in top CVD position followed closely by KwaZulu-Natal.

To get the full picture read the StatisticsSA report.

Thumbs up on national cancer control plan inclusivity

Thumbs up to the NCDs cluster of the National Department of Health (NDoH) for its responsiveness to stakeholder recommendations. The draft cancer plan, National Plan for the Prevention and Control of Cancer 2015 – 2020 (NCCP) is being reviewed by multisector – all of society stakeholder meeting early next month. Click here to review this draft.

Feedback from stakeholders on the 2014 a draft NCCP made it clear that more consultation was needed. The initial stakeholder meeting to its content (organisational structure) and process of development (planning process) in Pretoria on 6 February 2015.

The aims of the meeting include:

  • Identifying priorities in cancer prevention and control;
  • Setting goals and objectives;
  • Setting strategies for intervention;
  • Setting processes and timelines to achieve a final draft.

 

Professor Melvyn Freeman and the cluster team are to be congratulated on the transparent and inclusive step. The 1999 NCCP needs urgent revision to provide an integrated, comprehensive people-centered plan for South Africa. The new plan must take into account:

  • changing demographic and epidemiological trends
  • global and national targets
  • the health and developmental agendas.

For more information contact Elmie Engelbrecht at [email protected]

Click here to download the revised draft outline for consideration.

Patient-centred cancer care (PCCC) 7 building blocks

7 PCCC building blocks revPatient- or person-centred care is the next paradigm shift in healthcare systems strengthening and it has the power to change lives. It shows the way to integrated NCDs care.

Understand more about PCCC by watching this series of 4 videos.

The 7 PCCC building blocks were developed by the LIVESTRONG Foundation has published the outcome of a symposium on patient-centred cancer care. It research list 7 key building block that can be utilised to deliver cancer care across a variety of settings.

Click here to download the PCCC report.