Probe into provincial hospitals
Five KZN facilities identified
LONG waiting times, overcrowded casualty departments and staff shortages are to come under the spotlight at five provincial government hospitals, it has been announced.
These are some of the challenges facing hospitals across the country that are now under investigation in a bid to give patients a positive experience, clear patient backlogs, particularly in casualty departments, and improve staff morale.
The national Department of Health is sending 30 support teams to each province to identify and address the challenges.
The KZN Department of Health selected RK Khan Hospital in Chatsworth, Northdale Hospital in Pietermaritzburg, Ngwelezane Hospital in Empangeni, Murchison Hospital in Port Shepstone and Ladysmith Hospital to be part of the national initiative, the provincial department said yesterday.
Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo had already welcomed a delegation at his office in Durban yesterday.
The department was responding to what it said were “false and deliberately mislead- ing allegations by a political party”, which claimed that the five hospitals were being placed under administration by the national department.
“This cannot be further from the truth,” the statement read, pointing out that the support teams would spend a few days at each identified hospital around the country before presenting reports to the provincial heads of department.
Rejected
The department remained committed to providing quality health care to the people of the province and rejected “with contempt deliberate disinformation campaigns”, the statement said.
Earlier in the day, Dr Imran Keeka, the DA KZN spokesperson for Health, said the intervention to place the five hospitals “under administration” was long overdue.
“Our province’s Health Department is in crisis. Yet, despite the DA’s consistent warnings over many years, the MEC refuses to acknowledge the seriousness of the situation,” he claimed.
The five hospitals “were indeed some of the most problematic”, with staff shortages, long queues, rudeness by staff, poor management of patient complaints and medicine shortages, among other challenges, he said.
A letter from the national director-general of Health, MP Matsoso, to the KZN acting head of Health, Dr Musa Gumede, described the background, Keeka said.
The letter explained that the teams had been appointed in response to several reports, such as the ministerial task team report on hospitals, Office of Health Standards Compliance reports, media and civil society reports, as well as an analysis of complaints by users of services “that indicate that the health system is under considerable strain”.
The letter also said that some of the critical issues raised “point to a negative patient experience at casualty departments in some hospitals throughout the country”, with some experiences including “unkempt entry areas, long waiting times, a lack of empathy and negative attitudes of clinical staff as well as poor communication on the procedure of and functioning of casualty departments to those accessing the services”.