Mpumalanga Health Department placed under curatorship

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Pretoria – The Mpumalanga Health Department been placed under curatorship as the provincial health system is in dire straits.

The department was placed under curatorship from 21 June 2014, when the Mpumalanga Provincial Government ended its three-day executive council lekgotla.

The curator will be tasked with ensuring the provision of food, linen and waste management in all the provincial hospitals urgently.

Zibonele Mncwango, the spokesperson for Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza, said the treasurer and the Office of the Premier will now carry out the process of appointing a curator.

Mncwango said the appointment of the curator was strictly meant to improve service delivery.

“The intervention is meant to improve the situation in the health system and once the situation is back to normal, the curator will be removed.”

Working with hospital CEOs

Meanwhile, Premier Mabuza called on hospital CEOs to commit to work hand-in-hand with him and the curator in turning around the situation.

Premier Mabuza made the call on Monday during a meeting with CEOs of all the provincial hospitals. The meeting aimed to deal with severe mismanagement and other challenges perceived to be threatening the lives of the patients.

During the meeting, where the Premier spent more than five hours interacting with the CEOs of all 33 provincial hospitals, Mabuza received verbal reports from CEOs, who informed him about their challenges.

The information painted a negative picture in terms of infrastructure, human resources, leadership and contract management in the health system.

The CEOs reported that generally, all hospitals had infrastructure problems, as some buildings were ageing and dilapidated. The infrastructure problems ranged from dysfunctional boilers and laundry machines, to the lack of life saving equipment.

While other CEOs complained about lack of accommodation for patients, some complained about leaking roofs and lack of proper theatre tables.

Insufficient budgets for operations, running out of grocery and non-payment of some suppliers, were also among the challenges facing the health system. Linen had to be taken and cleaned at faraway hospitals with equipment.

The CEOs also complained that many of them were employed in an acting capacity, and the workmanship at the hospitals was also a challenge. Some hospitals had serious water shortages and at some hospitals, patient safety was compromised, as there was inadequate fencing.

In response, Premier Mabuza acknowledged that the situation needed urgent attention.

“We are going to rework their entire budget structures. We must further intervene with immediate effect in terms of infrastructure. Every hospital must be given a minimum number of people in order to be functional.

“As the provincial government, we will work on some powers which we think should be delegated to the CEOs. However, they must not abuse them. We want to ensure that they get certain delegations and they must be able to handle the finances,” said Premier Mabuza.

He said provincial government would to ensure that systems at the hospitals were strengthened. The premier further urged the CEOs to manage the hospital as expected to ensure that health system was not collapsing. – SAnews.gov.za