Pretoria – The Gauteng Health Department says it is working on improving the waiting periods for patients who are in need of surgery, and has implemented interventions to reduce the backlogs at public hospitals across the province.
The department on Monday said contrary to what has been suggested, private healthcare was not needed to reduce backlogs in state hospitals.
“Private care is more expensive and it drains medical professionals from the public system. Citizens want a strengthened public health care system that will reduce backlogs,” the department said.
Acting Head of Department, Ndoda Biyela, said some of the interventions implemented by the department included monitoring of theatre times at regional, central and tertiary hospitals; monitoring the appropriate use of hospital beds, especially in ICU, and better coordination of cross-border migration of patients from neighbouring provinces and countries.
The measures also include recapitalisation of medical equipment in public health facilities; partnering with NGOs to bring services such as cataract surgeries closer to the people, as well as investing in modern queue management systems.
“Surgery is at the end of the spectrum of the classic curative medical model. However, no matter how successful prevention strategies are, surgical conditions will always account for a significant portion of a population’s disease burden, particularly where the incidence of trauma and obstetrical complications is high, and where there is a huge backlog of untreated surgical diseases,” said Biyela.
The department was also in the process of reviewing the delivery of quality healthcare.
“This process is aimed at offering dedicated surgery time, standardizing practices and investing in new equipment, so that doctors are able to see more patients and complete more procedures than they normally would,” said Biyela. – SAnews.gov.za
