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Duration: 3 min 44sec

Transcript

KHOPOTSO: Our first stop is the Harriet Shezi Children’€™s Clinic, an HIV paediatric clinic based at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, in Soweto. It’€™s 10h00 a.m. on Thursday and the reception area ‘€“ brightly coloured in yellow and orange with an assortment of murals mounted on the walls – is quiet, except for the TV and radio in the background. Clients have not yet arrived. I wait barely five minutes before I meet Dr Tammy Meyers, Director of the HIV paediatric unit.

DR TAMMY MEYERS: We are incredibly excited about being able to provide treatment in the government service to people and to children’€¦ We’€™ve identified a group of children who we’€™ve been working with already this week that will get their treatment on the 1st of April. These are children who are very sick at the moment that we want to start as quickly as possible so that we can try and save them. We’€™ve counselled them. We’€™ve told them that they’€™re getting treatment, and we’€™ve been told that we will have the treatment in the hospital before the 1st. So, we’€™re very much hoping that this treatment will be available and ready to be provided on that day’€¦ We have it on good authority that the treatment has been ordered and (it) will be here.

KHOPOTSO: An interview I had scheduled earlier with the Gauteng Health MEC, Dr Gwen Ramokgopa to discuss AIDS treatment for children was cancelled at the last minute. But the Harriet Shezi Hospital is fortunate to have been in a position to administer the antiretroviral drugs to some of their clients. Dr Meyers believes that this experience has to some extent prepared the clinic for the roll-out.

DR MEYERS: We have over the last few years been treating a few children whose families can afford it or who have medical aid’€¦ and we now have about 70-odd children on treatment through that. We also have raised some funds to provide treatment to a group of children, and we have 30 children on treatment through that programme. And that’€™s given us also, experience in actually procuring. We’€™ve procured drugs and been able to treat through this programme.                          

KHOPOTSO: But still, there are a lot of challenges that need to be overcome.

DR MEYERS: Very little expertise exists in terms of providing the treatment. In fact, the health care services need a lot of development, even if antiretroviral treatment wasn’€™t an issue. There’€™s a lot more work that needs to be done in the public health care service to improve care of patients in general. So, we’€™re looking at a problematic health service and we’€™re trying to start this programme at the same time. So, there needs to be a lot of education of healthcare workers. In addition, there’€™s actually a shortage of staff’€¦ So, we need to recruit more people or try to maintain people within the public service. Many people train and then leave the public service ‘€“ doctors and nurses’€¦ So, there’€™s a huge challenge facing us.

KHOPOTSO: Speaking about the Harriet Shezi setting, specifically, can you tell us about the human resources capacity here, and where you see that there might be possible gaps in actually providing this service?                    

DR MEYERS: Essentially, really, we should be a tertiary service. So, we should be seeing referral cases, the more complicated cases and unusual problems, being seen as a research kind of facility’€¦ Over the years we’€™ve seen about a thousand children coming through our clinic and we haven’€™t seen all the children that we should be even within the Soweto area because we haven’€™t had enough staff. Obviously, when you put patients on treatment it does require extra resources because you have to follow them up more carefully, and do blood tests to make sure that the treatment is working as well as to look for side-effects’€¦ also in terms of counselling and making sure that the patients are actually taking their medication. In terms of the staff complement that we’€™ve got currently, we probably can manage about 300 patients a year who are on treatment.    

KHOPOTSO: On the 1st, how many patients do you think you’€™ll be starting on treatment?

DR MEYERS: We’€™ll, we’€™ve booked about 12 ‘€“ 15 children to come in. These are children that we’€™ve identified as extremely ill at the moment. It’€™s just the first day, and because you need to follow these people up regularly, their groups can’€™t be too big at a time. So, over the weeks we’€™ll be slowly increasing the numbers of children on treatment by about 10 or 20 children.    

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