Question NW319 to the Minister of Health
07 March 2024 - NW319
Hicklin, Ms MB to ask the Minister of Health
(1)What is his department’s plan to ensure that the ratio of environmental health practitioners (EHPs) to members of the population is addressed to meet the norms and standards of the National Environmental Health Policy, which states that there should be an EHP for every 10 000 members of the population; (2) what number of times did the EHPs visit early childhood development centres in (a) 2019, (b) 2020, (c) 2021, (d) 2022 and (e) 2023?
Reply:
1. The Department has, in terms of governance, developed and gazetted the “National Environmental Health Norms and Standards for Premises and Acceptable Monitoring Standards for Environmental Health Practitioners” in 2015. In terms of these Norms and Standards, the Department has since 2016 included the “Assessment of Municipalities” in its Annual Performance Plan (APP) to monitor the 1:10 000 ratio of EHP per population in the country. The reports generated from the assessments play a vital role in providing municipalities with evidence to use to motivate for additional human resources at their respective Municipal Councils.
2. The following table reflects the details in this regard.
|
YEARS |
NUMBER OF VISITS TO ECDs |
|
2019 |
48035 |
|
2020 |
29376 |
|
2021 |
39913 |
|
2022 |
52561 |
|
2023 |
54533 |
END.