Pretoria - Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has lashed out at hospital managers for failing to keep their hospitals clean.
"How do you find it so easy to work in a dirty hospital, no human being will last in such a hospital, you go there and feel depressed," said a concerned Dr Motsoaledi.
He said that a hospital is supposed to be the one of the cleanest public institutions.
The minister was addressing a meeting with Chief Executive Officers from the country's hospitals, as well as clinical managers, nursing managers and district managers on Thursday.
He warned the CEOs that the poor attitude of staff members, who are rude towards patients, was a reflection of their managerial style.
"I taught that when a human being enters your institution, you don't look at them at their biological entity, it's a wife, husband, mother and aunt. They've got dreams and ambitions just like you."
Commenting on the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI), Dr Motsoaledi said that whilst health was a human right, peoples' lives currently depend on the hands of their pockets.
He stressed the need to place necessary funding to NHI to assist those who can not afford to pay for medical aids.
"Seven million of people have medical aids, including you and me and 41 million don't have and their children are more sick than ours because we have medical aids.
"Are we not able to pull out funds so that those who can't afford to pay can be assisted, the issue is how do we fund NHI so that you life doesn't depend on how much money you have," he said.
Outlining the government's 10-point plan to overhaul the country's health system, Motsoaledi said the safety and security of patients, attitude of staff toward patients, dirty hospitals and number of hours spend by patients in a queue, were some of the issues needing immediate attention.
The meeting was part of Dr Motsoaledi's programmes of improving the performance of the health system in the country.
