Big changes in health care

Altered roles for Bay’s public hospitals in three-year reorganisation project

THE face of public health in Port Elizabeth is set for significant changes in the next three years, with all specialist services moved to Livingstone Hospital and a new multimillionrand catheterisation laboratory to be built there.

This is according to Livingstone Hospital chief executive Thulane Madonsela.

“This is not a long-term project. I have given myself three years to accomplish this. We must get it done,” he said.

An extensive reorganisation of the city’s public hospitals will entail a new role for Provincial and Dora Nginza hospitals.

Specialist services to be moved to Livingstone include the departments of obstetrics, gynaecology, paediatrics, the burns unit and all cardiac services.

Dora Nginza will become a regional hospital with basic specialist services.

“At this stage, we still have space limitations but we are now funding the services even if they are still based at Dora Nginza Hospital,” Madonsela said.

“The current cathlab is very old and starting to give us trouble.

“A few years ago, it was estimated it would cost more than R1-million to move the old cathlab from Provincial Hospital to Livingstone so we thought it would be better to wait, replace and build a new cathlab at Livingstone Hospital.”

Madonsela said a new building to house a machine used in nuclear medicine, to treat certain cancers, would also be built soon.

Provincial Hospital would get a new role as the second district hospital in the city, where basic medical services could be accessed.

The other was Uitenhage’s Provincial Hospital.

Madonsela said the plan also entailed a reengineering of the way residents use the hospitals.

“It has become imperative that our patients realise they must start at their local clinic,” he said.

“The Korsten Clinic on the hospital premises is open from 7am to 7pm and there is always a doctor on duty.”

Madonsela said the training of Emergency Medical Services personnel in assessing cases to determine if patients must be taken to a clinic or hospital would also resume soon.

He said they were working closely with the department’s infrastructure unit to finalise an acute psychiatric unit at Provincial Hospital where patients would be held for observation.

They were also looking to appoint an additional psychiatrist for the hospital, Madonsela said.