Malamulele Hospital to be a facility of choice

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Malamulele - Communications Minister Faith Muthambi says the Malamulele Hospital in Thulamela, Limpopo, should be a facility of choice, where quality healthcare services should be the order of the day.

“As government, we want Malamulele to be the hospital of choice, where South Africans should be able to receive quality healthcare services all the time.

“We expect the service delivery procedure of this facility to be driven by improving staff attitudes, staff training and development, communication and teamwork,” Minister Muthambi said on Sunday.

She was responding to the challenges raised by staff members during her visit to the hospital, which also concluded government's week-long national Imbizo Focus Week.

Some of the issues raised by the hospital staff were the lack of resources and the shortage of staff personnel including doctors.

Nurses told the minister that the water taps at the hospital were constantly dry.

“We are glad that you brought this to our attention. We don’t want this hospital to be seen as a facility which depresses our people. The mandate of the current administration is to implement government’s programme of action and to accelerate services to the masses. I will immediately instruct the leadership of the Vhembe District municipality to ensure that there is running water all the time at the hospital,” she said.

Hospital CEO Valerie Risenga attributed some of the challenges faced by the hospital to the period when the provincial Health Department was placed under administration in 2011.

“Irrespective our difficult working conditions, we are trying our best as a hospital to render quality healthcare to the people,” she said.

Minister Muthambi also announced that her department will adopt the hospital. On Saturday, the department also adopted the Evuxakeni Hospital, in Giyani, which caters for patients with mental disabilities.

Imbizo Focus Week

Minister Muthambi told SAnews that she was satisfied with the Imbizo Focus Week. “The Imbizo Focus Week was a success. The most important part of it was the excitement of our people to interact with their leadership from all spheres of government.

“It was a success, but it needs to continue and as the Department of Communications, we will have to make sure that we get feedback from this Imbizo Focus Week.

“We want to find ways of holding public representative accountable for failing to deliver services to the masses, but also to demonstrate that this administration is more about implementation of government’s program of action.

“As the department, we want to change the Constituency offices into help and centres of hope.

“The people’s excitement demonstrated that people don’t want a lot of things, but only to be updated about the implementation of government programmes and acceleration of services.

“When you interact with people and brief them about government’s programme of action, there would never be service delivery protests.

“The concept of izimbizo is that people representative should interact with the masses on a regular basis especially at a ward level. People want more information about the services they expect from government,” she said.

The minister said ward councillors should be the face of President Jacob Zuma in their respective wards. “We expect councillors to emulate President Zuma who listens and constantly gives feedback to the people.

“During the elections campaign, South Africans told us a number of things they wanted us to do, so now we know their problems, what we need to do is to deliver.

“The National Development Plan (NDP) is urging all South Africans to be part of the process of moving our country forward, so government wants to move along with people in building a better South Africa for all,” she said.

The minister also led a clean-up campaign at the hospital in honour of former President Nelson Mandela before she interacted with residents at the local shopping complex. - SAnews.gov.za