Hundreds of students recruited to study medicine in Cuba: Mahlangu
The Gauteng Department of Health has recruited 549 students from townships in the province to study medicine in Cuba.
They are expected to inject much needed capacity and skills into the primary health care system and improve health outcomes of patients once they return.
MEC Qedani Mahlangu delivered her 2016/17 budget speech in the provincial legislature on Thursday and added that government continues to work on promoting good health, reducing non-communicable diseases and unnatural causes of death.
"The number of people on life-saving anti-retroviral treatment exceeded 1 million in 2015. In the fight against HIV-Aids, more than 500 000 men have been medically circumcised since the launch of the medical male circumcision programme in 2010," she said
She reported that in the past three years, the department has reduced the in-facility maternal mortality ratio from 154/100 000 live births to 125/100 000 live births in 2015. TB screening has also been improve and has reached 5 million people.
The budget for the Emergency Medical Service has increased to R1.2 billion for the 2016/17 financial year.
This amount provides procurement of an additional 150 ambulances, 25 primary response vehicles, 11 rescue vehicles and five mobile emergency communications and command vehicles.
A total of 100 ambulances will be refurbished