Plan to get 3 500 clinics working properly by 2019

THE GOVERNMENT wants that by 2019, all patients who visit clinics would not have to wait for more than two hours and that they receive the best care.

At the launch of the second phase of Operation Phakisa in Pretoria yesterday, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said that while most South Africans receive health-care services at the 3 500 clinics, these do not function well.

No new clinics would be built for the project, but the existing ones would be turned into ideal clinics.

The first phase of the project was about unlocking the economy.

Motsoaledi said the current clinic models did not work because of poor financial management, poor infrastructure, supply chain, and the hiring of the wrong people into wrong positions.

“When departments are put into administration, it is always the health departments.

“The health sector is big, and if you do not have the right people dealing with the finances, then there will be problems,” he said.

Motsoaledi is hoping that Operation Phakisa will improve the healthcare system.

President Jacob Zuma defined an ideal clinic as one “that opens on time in the morning, according to its set operating hours, and which does not close until the last patient has been assisted, even if this is beyond the normal closing hours”.

Zuma said the clinics would be staffed by healthcare providers who treat patients with dignity.

To make this goal a reality, the president said that over the past five weeks, a team of 164 senior managers from the national, provincial and local government participated in an Operation Phakisa workshop to come up with ways of running ideal clinics.

The team concentrated on service delivery, waiting times, human resources, infrastructure, financial management, and supply chain management, among other things.

Motsoaledi said the team would be working with 10 clinics to try to implement the ideal clinic model.