By More Matshediso
Pretoria - The Public Service Commission (PSC) says it is satisfied with its findings following inspections conducted at two Gauteng hospitals.
Gauteng Public Service Commissioner Michael Seloane led a visit to Chris Hani Baragwanath and Steve Biko Academic hospitals.
Briefing the media after the inspections, Seloane said he was pleased with the cleanliness of the two facilities and queue management at dispensary sections is “close to satisfactory”.
On Tuesday, the PSC conducted the first inspection at Bara, followed by an inspection at Steve Biko Academic Hospital on Wednesday.
Seloane said the commission will compile a report with findings and recommendations and hand it over to the hospitals. Once the report is finalised, it will be tabled in Parliament and it will be made public afterwards.
“The details of the findings and recommendations will be in the final report,” he said.
Seloane said the commission will in future return to the hospitals to conduct unannounced visits to see if the standard of service is maintained. He stressed that the inspections were not triggered by complaints from the public.
He said the commission had set a list of questions for hospital management prior to the inspections and they were answered accordingly and observations were satisfactorily.
The commission noted areas that need improvement such as management of patient files and dispensing services, among others.
Seloane said there was a need to fast track the migration of patient file management from manual filing to a digital filing system (e-filing), since Gauteng is rolling out the programme in hospitals.
“The advent of ICT is the direction we need to take in the near future because anything can happen when you keep documents manually. With ICT, there is back up,” he said.
He said he was pleased that Gauteng Premier David Makhura mentioned in his State of the Province Address (SOPA) that the system will be rolled out to all hospitals in the near future.
The focus of the inspections was around the management of mortuary services, litigation management strategy, supply of medicines, patient file management and payment of service providers within 30 days.
Steve Biko Academic Hospital Chief Executive Ernest Kenoshi said the team spirit and motivation among staff members are key to the success of the hospital.
Kenoshi said the hospital welcomed the visit by the PSC and that it was important that the hospital gets audited and inspected.
“If there are any recommendations that come from this visit, we will welcome them because it will only mean improvement in the work that we do,” he said. - SAnews.gov.za
