KZN Health MEC vows to make healthcare more accessible
There should be no third party involved in assisting persons with disabilities to communicate their needs to healthcare professionals, KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo said on Tuesday.
Dhlomo, recognising the difficulties that deaf people encountered in accessing healthcare services, went so far as to vow to learn South African Sign Language and said he would enroll himself in a sign language course within the next two weeks.
Dhlomo made this bold statement as he addressed delegates at the three-day Health Disability and Rehabilitation Centre at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital in Durban on Tuesday.
Tuesday also happened to be the start of Disability Rights Awareness Month.
Census 2011 data showed that 7,5% of the South African population was living with a disability. KwaZulu-Natal had the country’s second highest population of persons with disabilities, behind the Free State, with 8,4% of the province’s population living with a disability.
Many of these disabilities were caused by motor vehicle accidents, non communicable diseases, HIV/AIDS and TB drug-related complications and conditions associated with ageing.
Dhlomo said his department had already started the first phase of ensuring healthcare workers were competent in the basics of sign language.
He said 20 frontline workers in five districts had been trained in basic sign language. These workers included public relation officers, admitting clerks, porters and pharmacy assistants.
The next phase would see the department “train nurses, doctors and therapists in sign language” within the next two years to ensure patients were able to easily access healthcare services.
“We will thus soon be putting out signs declaring our institutions as Sign Language User Friendly,” Dhlomo said.
Noting the increasing demand for disability-related services, Dhlomo spoke about government’s vision for “A Long and Healthy Life for All” and said this vision included persons with disabilities.
He acknowledged that persons with disabilities experienced enormous challenges in seeking healthcare services, including transportation challenges, and were often sidelined in the process.
“The reality of the matter is that persons with disabilities have the same health needs as people without any disability,” he said.
We need to, as a community, focus on “finding ways to address the contexts in which barriers limit participation for disabled people”.
ANA
File photo: Gallo Images