“Several key areas were addressed well including infrastructure development, staffing, emergency medical services, and health programmes. The emphasis on primary healthcare in alignment with the National Health Insurance (NHI) is also welcomed, as is the establishment of a Medico-Legal Unit which will help address the litigation crisis currently facing the department,” says Dr Zanele Bikitsha, chair of the Sama KZN Coastal Branch.
However, Bikitsha says some areas need more attention. These include the province’s HIV programme, supply chain management, nursing issues, staff wellness, and the problem of vacant posts within the health sector in the province.
“The HIV programme, for instance, is largely supported by NGOs, and this leads to skewed statistics. There is also a concern that some of these organisations are withdrawing from institutions while the capacity of the health department has not yet been fully established there, particularly in relation to administrative abilities,” she says.
Whilethe branch welcomes the stance to tighten supply chain management processes, the fact that many vendors who do not meet their obligations continue to be given business despite non-delivery, remains a problem.
Regarding nursing, Bikitsha says there is a concern over the large number of unemployed nurses in the province, especially as they are pivotal to the roll-out of primary healthcare, which will be the cornerstone of NHI. She says more nurses are still being produced without a plan for their retention, a situation which needs to be addressed immediately.
“In addition, we also call for all vacant posts within the health sector in the province to be filled urgently to alleviate the severe staffing crisis which is resulting in increased medico-legal cases, and which is also leading to the poor quality of service provision in KwaZulu-Natal,” she says.
More emphasis should have been placed on the issue of staff safety and wellness in Simelane-Zulu’s address.
“We would have liked to hear of a commitment to physical security measures, the upgrading of institutions currently not deemed safe, and of measures to deal with psychiatric patients in our institutions. This, we believe, needed more focus from the MEC,” says Bikitsha.
While there are still areas of worry, progress in other areas is encouraging. “We applaud, for instance, the announcement that the Pixley Ka Isaka Seme Hospital north of Durban is 95% complete, and is expected to be operational before the new financial year. This is certainly good news for everyone in the province, and we congratulate the provincial department of health on this achievement,” concludes Bikitsha.
