Protracted attempts to unite health care organisations are set to bear fruit at the launch this weekend of the South African Health and Social Services Organisation.Sahsso will bring together five major bodies, including the National Medical and Dental Association (Namda), the Organisation for Appropriate Social Services in South Africa (Oasssa) and the South African Health Workers' Congress.
A politically non-aligned organisation, its chief aims will be to provide primary health care to communities and to lobby for proved health services. Unity talks, which began several years ago, are known to have been complicated by the differing character of the organisations. The constituent organisations have been duplicating services.
Melvyn Freeman, an Oasssa member from the Wits Community Health Centre, says the uniting of health care and social services under one umbrella allows the organisation to look not only at the provision of medical services for illness, but also at the social conditions in which disease occurs.
Sahsso membership will make it possible for health professionals such as doctors to join the same organisation as other workers in the health sector. Previously unorganised workers, such as those in mental health, can also be represented.
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.