Initiation of sites in the Northern Cape began in April 2006. Support from Right to Care has focused on staff secondment; providing HIV clinical experts to transfer skills to the clinical staff; providing patient transport to assist patients in moving from the community to primary sites, and the provision of mobile ART units to aid out-reach and the down-referral of patients, specifically in the Kgalagadi and Namaqualand districts.

The Department of Health identified six CCMT sites and then added two further sites later in the period under review. The sites are:

• Galeshewe Day Hospital in Kimberley
• Gordonia Hospital
• Springbok Hospital
• De Aar Community Health Centre
• Kuruman Hospital
• Jan Kempdorp
  

The two additions were Ethembeni Clinic in Prieska and Tshwaragano CCMT.

With the aim of extending some of Right to Care’s projects into the provinces, the Voluntary Counselling and Testing Access programme was introduced. Non-government organisations were also assessed, but as yet no agreements have been reached. Due to the difficulty of attracting and retaining clinicians in the Northern Cape, Right to Care is looking at partnering with an international organisation to implement a clinical mentorship programme. Such a programme would use external mentors at selected sites for specified periods of time. The programme was set to begin in January 2008.

Additional staff were employed in the province, including 19 lay counsellors and 11 pharmacist assistant learners. Right to Care is hoping to expand the pharmacist assistant learnership programme within the coming period.

To increase the capacity of these sites to meet the demand for HIV and TB care, infrastructural changes have begun at three sites, namely, Jan Kempdorp, Galeshwe, and Kuruman.

Right to Care collaborated with the Foundation for Professional Development in the Northern Cape to present the Compass Project, a mapping exercise to detail the provision of HIV, AIDS, and TB services, both private, public- and donor-funded throughout the province. Correlation between the epidemiology of the disease, geographic distribution of the population, and treatment services will enable the identification of unmet needs at various sites throughout the province. Results of the project will be presented to the Provincial AIDS Council in 2008.

The focus for the coming reporting period will be the development of at least two down-referral sites for each CCMT site and the integration of TB and HIV.