Health Systems Trust - Future Plans
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The Health Systems Trust takes Bold Steps - Planning for the Future
Professor Marian Jacobs, the newly elected chairperson of the Health
Systems Trust (HST) Board of Trustees, and chairperson of the Medical
Research Council, will preside over an organisation which has honed its
work to ensure that it will continue to contribute dynamically and
creatively to the ongoing transformation of health care in South Af-
rica.
The HST will strengthen the emphasis it places on supporting the imple-
mentation of good health policies and strategies and focus on three
main areas:
* District systems development with a view to identifying effective
practices which can be implemented throughout the whole health
system;
* Promoting the move towards equity through monitoring implementation
of government projects and programmes; and
* Forward planning for future health and health care development.
In order to maximise impact the HST will streamline its activities into
three main programmes working closely together on key organisational
products.
Research will continue to play a central role as the main support in-
tervention for HST's work. However there will be a new emphasis on fu-
tures research that can facilitate health care planning. The crucial
aspect of skills development for health systems research will be inte-
grated into the research programme.
The Initiative for Sub District Support (ISDS), which has already dem-
onstrated much success in identifying systems and strategies that
really work for health systems development, will continue to strive for
the creation of practical and effective models for providing health
care at the district level.
Encouraging the effective use and dissemination of information for de-
cision making by various stakeholders will be the third programme, in
which HealthLink and the Project for Information Dissemination will
combine to offer a seamless hard copy and electronic information serv-
ice.
The organisation will continue to be guided by an independent Board of
Trustees comprising a diverse group of individuals with professional
standing and expertise in health systems development. The day to day
management will remain the responsibility of the Secretariat under the
leadership of its Executive Director. In line with its Deed of Trust
five of the original trustees have stepped down and 7 new trustees have
been appointed. Along with the four remaining trustees they will con-
stitute the new board:
Professor Marian Jacobs, Chairperson, is Professor of Paediatrics at
the University of Cape Town;
Trevor Fowler, First Vice Chairperson, is the speaker of the Gauteng
Legislature;
Francie Lund, Second Vice Chairperson, is a senior Social science Re-
searcher at the Centre for Social Development Studies, University of
Natal;
Nomonde Bam, Director of Primary Health Care for Mpumalanga Province;
Selva Govindsamy is Director of Finance, University of Durban West-
ville;
Thembeka Gwagwa, Executive Director of the Democratic Nursing Associa-
tion of South Africa;
Leslie London is Associate Professor in the Department of Community
Health at the University of Cape Town;
Zola Njongwe, Chief Medical Superintendent at Pretoria Academic Hospi-
tal;
Peta Qubeka is Director of Corporate Services in the Johannesburg Me-
tropole;
Olliver Ransome, Ombudsman for the South African Medical Association;
and
Thabo Sibeko, Regional Director in the Department of Health in the
Eastern Cape.
For more information please contact:
Antoinette Ntuli
Tel: +27-31-307-2954
Fax: +27-31-304-0775
mailto:ant@healthlink.org.za
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Candy Day,
National Manager - HealthLink
Information, Communication & Advocacy Programme
of the Health Systems Trust
PO Box 808, Durban, 4000, South Africa
Tel: +27-31-307-2954
Fax: +27-31-304-0775
mailto:candy@healthlink.org.za
http://www.healthlink.org.za
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