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10 November 2006

Programme Director,
MECs for Health,
Director-General and heads of Health,
International guests,
Senior managers,
Sponsors supporting this event,
The Excellence Awards nominees,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Programme Director, kindly allow me to convey warm greetings from our Minister of Health, Dr Mantombazana Tshabalala-Msimang, who unfortunately for the first time in the history of these awards could not be here tonight. As you well know she is recuperating at home after a brief spell of hospitalisation. She is obeying the doctor's orders to relax at home. We also thank her for obeying such orders and not allow her extreme commitment to work to interfere with the need for recuperation. We salute her for the leadership she continues to give to all of us.

Today marks the most significant ceremony on the Ministry and the Department of Health calendar. I am pleased that we are now celebrating the fourth combined ceremony of the Health Excellence Awards. When we initiated this programme in 2002, it catered for the nursing profession only, i.e. the Cecilia Makiwane Nurses' Recognition awards ceremony held at the University of South Africa (Unisa). At that event President Thabo Mbeki gave the keynote address and in his address referred to Ms Cecilia Makiwane who broke new ground, she was a pioneer and a transformer in the nursing field. It is now her present day colleagues who are pioneers and transformers that we are privileged to honour today.

The nursing profession and the health system are deeply reliant on two fundamental qualities suggested by the life of Cecilia Makiwane:

* a foundation of deeply held values and traditions
* the ability to rise to new challenges and grasp new opportunities and above all to innovate in response to the needs of our people.

Health professionals perform many roles and responsibilities in our health system; they teach, they serve and they research and develop innovations in healthcare thus ensuring that our national health system serves more of our people. Frequently, it is difficult to separate these roles in a highly integrated workplace. The role of these awards is to recognise those professionals who in their working lives have shown dedication, commitment and excellence in providing service and therefore strengthening the health system.

Our health professionals are in a unique position to assist in the social and economic development of our nation. They are scientifically and technically trained. They have values which are geared to preserving the health and dignity of the patients.

Since 1994 our government has taken steps to encourage a more developmental approach by adopting a primary health care (PHC) led strategy in the public sector. Frequently our health programmes require broader social interventions in a comprehensive programme aimed at the reduction and eradication of poverty as well as direct healthcare programmes. Our public health system is straining under our complex and heavy disease burden. We have to fight the battle across three frontiers, dealing simultaneously with growing rates of communicable disease, non-communicable diseases and trauma. We urgently need to strengthen workforce planning to ensure that the country produces highly skilled practitioners to serve our nation. Our partnership with other sister departments like National Treasury must be strengthened so that we can structure our health sciences education and training system towards producing the right kind of professionals to serve this country. We must aim to produce for self-sufficiency. It is also critical that as a country and the health system we hold on to what we currently have. We must actively show that we value these colleagues who do the best they can under very trying circumstances. In addition we have to develop a cadre of management that is more responsive to the needs of health professionals.

Following the launch of the National Human Resource for Health (HRH) plan in April 2006, several professional groups are proactively engaging with the Department of Health in developing strategies for preserving and retaining professional categories in our health system. This is a very welcome sign that we are all concerned about ensuring a robust health system, which is developed through joint planning. It is encouraging that many private sector groups are also putting their weight behind this initiative. Of course the plan needs to go beyond and influence what we do at provincial and academic institution levels. A number of provinces have commenced with developing province specific HRH plans based on the national framework.

Some are modifying what they had already started drafting. What is very gratifying with this work is the fact that these provincial plans have a strong service transformation element to them which cannot be included in a national framework. The end products should therefore be HRH plans that seek to respond to the health needs of our communities.

This will assist the health sciences education and training institutions in correctly focusing the training of health professionals to meet the needs of society. The Department through a number of measures being implemented on improving the planning, development and management of human resources (HR) is planting the seeds for good practice in the HRH field.

As we forge ahead with the work I have just described, it is important that we continue to honour those among us who serve as shining examples of commitment and dedication to the service. They act as role models sometimes unbeknown to them as young professionals look upon them to benchmark what they do. These professionals represent the core of what healthcare is about. They represent the values which are the basis of health professional training and we are proud of the exemplary nature that they display. It is through displaying such qualities that they are today recognised by their peers and their names put forward for recognition at national level.

Ladies and gentlemen, I wish to remind you that this is not a contest. Therefore, all those who had their names considered by their peers at local and provincial levels share in that recognition. We have noticed significant developments that have occurred since the first excellence awards.

Because of the success of the first awards, a unanimous decision was taken at national level to hold combined awards and this was affected immediately in 2003. The seven awards presented included the following:

* Alfred Nzo Environmental Health Achievement Awards
* Cecilia Makiwane Nurses Recognition Awards
* District Health System Awards
* Health Professions Council of South Africa Awards
* Marilyn Lahana Trust Caring Awards
* South African Medical Association Awards.

We are now planning a team based award for those innovative projects which involve teams of professionals especially those that bridge the public and private sector divide, but are focused at community level. In fact these awards are a good example of such partnerships and we are particularly grateful to our sponsors for their support for excellence in healthcare.

As we hold this annual award ceremony, I wish to reiterate that as government we have high regard for all categories of our health workers and professionals. We appreciate their efforts and fully understand that health workers are the most critical resource in meeting our constitutional mandate of ensuring access to quality healthcare.

The different awards that will be presented tonight are our token of appreciation for the valuable contribution of these health professionals to improving the health of our population. We are aware that some of the health categories are not yet adequately covered but the finalists and indeed the winners to be announced tonight are role models for our younger health professionals and for our country as a whole.

In our preliminary investigation on group projects, two provinces made submissions on projects that are currently in place i.e. Gauteng and Western Cape. I salute them for the initiative and promise that in 2007 more provinces will come on board. A new participant in service excellence awards is the Pharmacy Council which has promised to launch pharmacists' prizes in 2007.

It is pleasing to learn that there is a lot of buzz, excitement and appreciation by health workers in the provinces and districts that precedes this annual occasion. In effect this means that the finalists are looked upon to make an even bigger difference, solely based on them getting national recognition. You are expected to make a bigger difference to the lives of our people that heed the call to action to bring about a better life. On our part as government with the dedication and commitment of my colleagues the MECs, I rededicate ourselves to making everything in our power to ensuring that we continuously look at better ways of improving the working lives of our health professionals. Your experience of the health system must turn you into advocates so that the young choose careers in health.

To this end let me recognise our colleagues from the Department of Health in the United Kingdom (UK) who are here tonight. They are Professor Anna Maslin, Ms Liz Kidd, Ms Faluke Ajayi and Mr Jim O'Connell who participated in the seminar on HRH that was held over the past two days. This seminar is held annually under the auspices of our bilateral agreement with the UK in the health sector.

I am informed that the seminar went very well and participants have identified practical ways of strengthening the relationship concentrating on tangible deliverables. We therefore thank Professor Maslin and her team for their dedication to ensuring the success of our relationship as the two health systems. Kindly convey this message to the UK Minister of Health.

On this note I would like to congratulate all provincial and national finalists present here today and to indicate that for the Department of Health, they are all winners in their own right. May you grow from strength to strength because South Africa needs you!

I thank you ladies and gentlemen!

Issued by: Department of Health
10 November 2006