Keeping infrastructure healthy

Gauteng’s healthcare facilities need a deft hand

The lure of lucrative salaries by the private sector makes it a major chall e n g e f o r g o v e r n me n t departments to attract and retain the much-needed engineering skills.

So says acting deputy-director g e n e r a l B e r n a r d P e t l a n e , wh o heads the Capex wing of the health facilities of the Gauteng D e p a r t me n t o f I n f r a s t r u c t u r e Development.

With only three months into his acting post, Petlane, who is an electrical engineer by training, is in charge of 300 clinics as well as 40 hospitals and academic hospitals strewn across the province.

With such a large number of national assets under his control, you may wonder how he is coping, as he has a further 95 active projects under construction, which include the R2-billion Lillian Ngoyi Hospital, opposite the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto.

The health facilities of t he department are divided into three distinct wings, namely the maintenance wing, Capex wing, and engineering services. It is no doubt a daunting task, but one Petlane is prepared to tackle head-on. What are engineers for if they cannot fathom solutions to our everincreasing challenges? Armed with vast experience gained in the private sector, Petlane is not about to become a shrinking violet in his new role. After all, he has been with the department for the past three years and is now well versed on the critical demands of his department.

There are six corridors in Gauteng, he explains. These are Tshwane, Sedibeng, Ekurhuleni, Central Gauteng, Western Gauteng and Soweto. Of these, each region has its own directors and a staff of about 500. Overall, maintenance staff in the province amount to 2 000 people, while the staff complement of engineers is 60.

To ensure a seamless flow of activity, all the directors from the various regions meet every Wednesday to “make sure everything is in order, “says Petlane.

He adds that with proper systems in place, they are able to eliminate surprises and breakdowns, reduce costs, and tackle negatives that can impact on the reputation of the department. But more than anything else, it is his wish to imple- ment maintenance practices that are proactive rather than reactive.

Of concern, however, is that it takes time to implement software systems, “sometimes two to three years. Its no overnight success,” he adds.

Given that public service has more challenges than the private s e c t o r , s o me t h i n g P e t l a n e h a s grudgingly come to accept, his department is faced with a situation where technical information and drawings are sometimes hard to come by. In some instances they have been unable to react to an emergency because of the missing information.

The advent of democracy i n 1994 did not help matters as some archival materials were allegedly shredded. In one instance, a building in Pretoria housing archives was burnt down with all the material still inside. There are no easy solutions, but through Petlane’s ingenuity he’s been able to overcome some of the challenges by conferring with older people in the system.

‘’Some of these people may not be occupying senior positions, but you will be amazed at how much they know about the department’s work and where certain documents have been kept,” he says. “Just by simply asking I have been able to obtain some documents which have been wrongfully archived,” he said.

It may well be early days for Petlane, but with dogged determination he says problems are slowly fading away — this can only be a boon for the department in delivering on its constitutional imperatives.