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DENOSA Northern Cape embarks on TB Awareness campaign and hands over 200 stethoscopes for nurses at primary healthcare facilities in the NHI pilot site
Press Release
Monday, 24 August 2015
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) in the Northern Cape embarked on a Tuberculosis (TB) Awareness campaign in the Pixley Ka Seme District as the National Health Insurance (NHI) pilot site of Northern Cape on Friday 21 August in Barcelona in Der Aar where it also handed over 200 stethoscopes for nurses in primary health around the district.
Stethoscope is a medical device used by health professionals to listen to the action and sound of a human body like lungs, intestines, heart and blood flow in arteries and veins. The devices will be used for diagnostic purposes by nurses functioning at the Primary Health Care level.
The organisation worked closely with officials from the Department of Health in the District during this awareness. About 90 households were visited and educated on TB, the importance of getting tested, support for those diagnosed with TB and the importance of adherence to medication and basic Infection and Prevention Principles. Information pamphlets and playing cards with health information like TB, Male Circumcision and HIV/AIDS were also given to households.
DENOSA Provincial Chairperson, Kagisho Martin Taolo, says the response from households was very positive and the willingness to visit health facilities to be examined for TB was also expressed by these families. He expressed DENOSA’s concerns around the statistics of TB in some areas of the province and say they will continue to play an active role in educating communities about communicable and non-communicable diseases. “We salute the nurses and care givers for their efforts in trying to bring down the statistics of TB in the province,” he said.
Handing over the 200 stethoscopes to the Department of Health in the NHI pilot district in the province was the second part of the programme on the day. “As a nursing organisation, we fully support the realisation of the NHI in the province, specifically in the Pixley Ka Seme as a pilot site. The critical element in the success of NHI is availability of resources for health workers to utilise and improve patients’ lives. We handed over these devices to the representative of the Department of Health, Ms Rachel Mosimanewapula a member of the District Clinical Specialist Team (primary healthcare nurses) in the district.”
End
Issued by the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) Northern Cape
For more information, contact:
Kagisho Martin Taolo, DENOSA Provincial Chairperson
Mobile: 079 501 5825
Website: www.denosa.org.za
Facebook: DENOSA National Page
Twitter: @DENOSAORG
