The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) calls for municipalities to prioritize municipal health Services as part of a developmental agenda.
SALGA, in partnership with the South African Institute of environmental health (SAEIH), the City of Cape Town and International Federation of Environmental Health (IFEH) hosted the 2017 Municipal Health Service (MHS) Summit in Cape Town, from 30 January – 01 February.
The three-day summit was being held to celebrate “20 Years of Environmental Health.
Funding of environmental health services remains one of the biggest challenges still faced by the profession within the local government equitable share for basic services. Environmental Health is allocated the least amount with Local government receiving less than 10% of the total equitable share, of this less than 3% of the funds are allocated for environmental health as a basic service.
The President of the South African Institute of Environmental Health, Dr. Selva Mudaly said “South Africa still has a high burden of preventable diseases which can be mitigated through improvements in the environment”.
Dr. Selva Mudaly explains that the idea of prevention in South Africa needs to change. He said it is the duty of the Environmental Health Practitioners (EHPs) to conscientise politicians about environmental health issues. Environmental Health cuts across various disciplines and it is, therefore, incumbent that it takes center stage in various municipalities determining the developmental agenda and processes.
Dr Selva Mudaly urged that EHPs to prioritize their work functions which are legal obligations mandated from the constitution of the Republic of South Africa. ”We must drive environmental health for the benefit of our communities. Without those communities they will be no work for EHPs. When the summit finishes, the resolutions will be accompanied by the action plan.” said Dr Mudaly.
Staffing in Environment Health is another area where South Africa still falls short in meeting the world Health Organization (WHO) staffing norms of 1:10, 000 Environment Health Practitioner (EHP) to population ratio.
These are some of the issues that SALGA wants to be addressed, and it has called for municipalities to prioritize municipal health services as one of the key deliverables in their Integrated Developmental Plans (IDPs) and to make resources available to deliver these critical services to communities.
