We put our patients first

NO ONE is left behind in the delivery of health services in the Western Cape. Our focus is patient-centred care and ensuring that those we serve are our priority. Giving access to quality healthcare is our core business and we endeavour to improve patient experience.

It is therefore crucial that we listen and ensure that rural residents who struggle to access health services are heard.

We have expanded and improved our HealthNet service. It provides transport from rural areas to referral facilities in bigger centres. This ensures equal access to healthcare for all. We have about 230 pick-up points across the province, fetching 150 000 patients a year and we have set aside about R90 million for this service.

As the government, it is crucial that we respond to the need of each area with a solution that is fit for purpose. The lack of public transport in rural areas calls for a responsive government that looks at its core function and responds to the needs of its people.

In the past, patients paid large amounts of money to reach these facilities, income that could otherwise be used for their households.

With HealthNet services, patients are collected and dropped off at various points. We have a fleet of vehicles to transport people according to their service needs (sitting as well as stretcher patients). HealthNet also provides specialist vehicles such as larger capacity transporters as well as wheelchair-lift vehicles. The comfort of patients is a priority as many travel more than 200km to Cape Town.

While travelling across the province, one of the things that hit me, and required my immediate attention, was patients waiting in unsafe areas for transport to take them to referral hospitals.

This is not our core business but an additional service to the emergency service offered by our ambulances. We have since identified safe areas and achieved this through community consultation. Our hard-working district staff have been working tirelessly to ensure that all pick-up points are safe.

Such a service requires co-ordinated effort. Thank you to our rural hub managers who ensure that the patients are accommodated in the transport going back to their district and our EMS and district management for going the extra mile.

The Western Cape Health Department prides itself on delivering services in all parts of the Western Cape, putting patients first.