EDITORIAL COMMENT:

MANY Bay residents will be relieved to hear that the casualty unit at Port Elizabeth’s Provincial Hospital is finally set to reopen, even though they may have to wait up to three years to see it happen.

Since the unit shut its doors in 2011, The Herald continues to receive regular letters from readers pleading for it to reopen – and now those pleas have at last been heard.

These and other sweeping changes, announced by the Provincial and Livingstone hospitals’ new chief executive, Thulani Madonsela, bode well for a turnaround in healthcare at two of the province’s vital state hospitals.

Madonsela – some would say in contrast to his forerunner Dr Kobus Kotze – comes across as a practical and hands-on administrator; the kind who is in tune with patients and communities.

He realises, it seems, the limitations of ordinary working people, who are more likely to be forced, due to work commitments, to call at a state hospital or clinic at the beginning or end of the day. Likewise, the needs of the poor and unemployed weigh on him, as he observes that everyone, no matter their status, has a right to quality healthcare.

Above all, he appears cognisant of the fact that, without motivated doctors and nurses, even the world’s most state-of-the-art hospitals will almost certainly come short.

It is particularly encouraging that Madonsela, though only appointed last month, has already secured the return of several high-profile private sector doctors to Livingstone – a hospital he chooses to be treated at.

Madonsela is certainly making all the right noises and his plans, if they all come to fruition, will bring about much-needed change at our ailing state hospitals.

Let’s hope it is not just a case of new broom sweeps clean, and that his vision, coupled by solid backing from the provincial Department of Health, will result in concrete improvements.