View all
Media statement
Tuesday, 06 October 2015
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) is in full support of the release last week of the new guidelines on HIV treatment by World Health Organisation (WHO), and calls for beefing up of personnel in order for the country get ready for the increased initiation of HIV patients on ARV.
The new guidelines recommend that initiation of HIV positive patients onto ARVs programme should commence as soon as the patient is diagnosed. South Africa’s HIV guidelines say HIV positive patients should be initiated into ART once their CD4 count is below 500. The new guidelines from WHO is a remarkable improvement.
As DENOSA, we commend these new guidelines as they are in the best interest of patients to get treatment as opposed to waiting for a patient’s condition to deteriorate before intervening. We encourage our government to embrace this new protocol as soon as possible, as it will have positive spin-offs for the country’s average life expectancy which is likely to increase if we are to follow the guidelines from WHO.
Economists agree that the main driver of the country’s economy is the health status of its people. DENOSA believes the guidelines give South Africa an opportunity to strengthen the fundamental and the most critical element of the country’s economic growth drive – its people.
DENOSA strongly believes that few things will have to be taken into cognisance, however, for the country to implement the new recommended guidelines properly, as this will imply that more patients would be on government’s programme. Personnel numbers in the country’s health system is one such element that we believe it must be addressed as a matter of urgency if we are to achieve great results.
From a nursing perspective, many health centres are well short of nurses in critical areas and in some institutions staff complements are half of what they should be. Implementing the new recommendations would also require the lifting of moratorium on filling in of vacant positions as has been the case in some provinces like North West and Eastern Cape. Or else, queues in our facilities will become longer and severely compromise the quality of patient care in general.
As DENOSA we are banking on the spirit of our health minister who has been a champion in addressing the HIV pandemic in the country. We hope he receives the necessary cooperation and support from Treasury so that austerity measures don’t suppress the potential of Health Department in improving the lives of citizens.
Issued by the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA)
For more information, contact:
Simon Hlungwani, DENOSA President
Mobile: 079 501 4922
Or
Sibongiseni Delihlazo, DENOSA Communications Manager
Mobile: 079 875 2663
Tel: 012 343 2315
Facebook: DENOSA National Page
Twitter: @DENOSAORG