Shoddy hospitals face closure
25 November 2009, 07:12
By Louise Flanagan and Sapa
Hospitals and clinics that fail to put patient treatment first and don't meet set standards face closure as part of a major crackdown.
Yesterday, Deputy Health Minister Molefi Sefularo launched his department's plan to revamp public and private health facilities, which includes hospitals and clinics - a move seen as a big step towards the introduction of a National Health Insurance (NHI) system.
"The areas we have committed ourselves to turn around are improving patient safety, strengthening infection prevention and control, ensuring the availability of essential medicines and supplies, reducing waiting times, ensuring the cleanliness of our facilities, and spreading a positive and caring attitude throughout the system," Sefularo pointed out.
This, he said, would be done through a national set of standards currently being drawn up and to be implemented by an independent health watchdog body that is still to be established.
The National Health Act will be amended to create the watchdog body, which will report to Parliament either directly or through the health minister.
It would have wide-ranging powers, including the ability to shut down private or public facilities it deemed unfit.
The national standards it would uphold were still being formulated at a quality summit currently under way in Boksburg. These would be presented to the National Health Council soon.
"These core standards reflect the basic requirements expected of all managers for us to provide safe and decent care in South Africa," Sefularo said.
"The very first standards cover the expectation that patients are treated with respect and dignity. To those using our public services, the attitude of our staff, the environment within which they are treated and the length of time they have to wait are at the top of the list of their expected performance. Unfortunately, these are often aspects where our performance is sadly lacking," Sefularo said.
At present, patients accessing treatment at state facilities are often confronted by long queues, lengthy waiting times and poor service - a situation blamed mainly on inadequate staff numbers.
Through the plan, all health institutions will have to be accredited after undergoing an audit by a national quality management and accreditation body, which will report to the minister.
Sefularo said he would rather that facilities were temporarily closed if they were not up to scratch, and that some problematic institutions would have been forced to close if the system was already in place.
The head of the trauma unit at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, Professor Jacques Goosen, was thrilled at the prospect of national standards.
Goosen, an executive member of the Trauma Society of SA, said the society had been lobbying for a standards system for trauma and emergency units since 1992, but had been ignored.
He said setting national standards would require doctors to have the right qualifications to practise in those units, and if units were graded at different levels, it would enable the public to know which units to go to in emergencies.
"We could decrease the number of days in ICU significantly if you took patients to the right place in the first place."
SA Democratic Nurses Union deputy president Mohau Bodibe welcomed the standards, but was sceptical about implementation.
"The core standards, they have to be there, it's a legal requirement. We support that as labour," said Bodibe.
"But they are overestimating their capabilities in staffing. "How do you reduce queues if you don't have enough staff?"
Bodibe said the health system's main problems were a lack of staff, equipment and competent hospital CEOs.
Sefularo said the Treasury had already approved R60-million for this financial year to get the standards plan off the ground.
"We have committed ourselves to reach 1 000 facilities, that is 25 percent of our entire public service network, before the end of March," he said.
The facilities include about 250 hospitals. Each year the standards will be extended to another 25 percent of facilities.
"Standards are a statement of expected performance," Sefularo added.
He said a standards system had not been in place before because "the law was just badly drafted", and each province went its own way.
Government planning documents online indicate that the amendment to the National Health Act that will allow for the establishment of the body has been drafted, and must be done in time to get the accreditation body up and running by March.
The accreditation body is understood to be a crucial step towards setting up the NHI, as patients using the NHI would expect a reasonable standard of treatment, whichever institution they use.
The standards strategy is part of the department's 10-point plan contained in its strategic plan for 2009-10/2011-12.
Hospitals and clinics that fail to put patient treatment first and don't meet set standards face closure as part of a major crackdown.
Yesterday, Deputy Health Minister Molefi Sefularo launched his department's plan to revamp public and private health facilities, which includes hospitals and clinics - a move seen as a big step towards the introduction of a National Health Insurance (NHI) system.
"The areas we have committed ourselves to turn around are improving patient safety, strengthening infection prevention and control, ensuring the availability of essential medicines and supplies, reducing waiting times, ensuring the cleanliness of our facilities, and spreading a positive and caring attitude throughout the system," Sefularo pointed out.
This, he said, would be done through a national set of standards currently being drawn up and to be implemented by an independent health watchdog body that is still to be established.
The National Health Act will be amended to create the watchdog body, which will report to Parliament either directly or through the health minister.
It would have wide-ranging powers, including the ability to shut down private or public facilities it deemed unfit.
The national standards it would uphold were still being formulated at a quality summit currently under way in Boksburg. These would be presented to the National Health Council soon.
"These core standards reflect the basic requirements expected of all managers for us to provide safe and decent care in South Africa," Sefularo said.
"The very first standards cover the expectation that patients are treated with respect and dignity. To those using our public services, the attitude of our staff, the environment within which they are treated and the length of time they have to wait are at the top of the list of their expected performance. Unfortunately, these are often aspects where our performance is sadly lacking," Sefularo said.
At present, patients accessing treatment at state facilities are often confronted by long queues, lengthy waiting times and poor service - a situation blamed mainly on inadequate staff numbers.
Through the plan, all health institutions will have to be accredited after undergoing an audit by a national quality management and accreditation body, which will report to the minister.
Sefularo said he would rather that facilities were temporarily closed if they were not up to scratch, and that some problematic institutions would have been forced to close if the system was already in place.
The head of the trauma unit at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, Professor Jacques Goosen, was thrilled at the prospect of national standards.
Goosen, an executive member of the Trauma Society of SA, said the society had been lobbying for a standards system for trauma and emergency units since 1992, but had been ignored.
He said setting national standards would require doctors to have the right qualifications to practise in those units, and if units were graded at different levels, it would enable the public to know which units to go to in emergencies.
"We could decrease the number of days in ICU significantly if you took patients to the right place in the first place."
SA Democratic Nurses Union deputy president Mohau Bodibe welcomed the standards, but was sceptical about implementation.
"The core standards, they have to be there, it's a legal requirement. We support that as labour," said Bodibe.
"But they are overestimating their capabilities in staffing. "How do you reduce queues if you don't have enough staff?"
Bodibe said the health system's main problems were a lack of staff, equipment and competent hospital CEOs.
Sefularo said the Treasury had already approved R60-million for this financial year to get the standards plan off the ground.
"We have committed ourselves to reach 1 000 facilities, that is 25 percent of our entire public service network, before the end of March," he said.
The facilities include about 250 hospitals. Each year the standards will be extended to another 25 percent of facilities.
"Standards are a statement of expected performance," Sefularo added.
He said a standards system had not been in place before because "the law was just badly drafted", and each province went its own way.
Government planning documents online indicate that the amendment to the National Health Act that will allow for the establishment of the body has been drafted, and must be done in time to get the accreditation body up and running by March.
The accreditation body is understood to be a crucial step towards setting up the NHI, as patients using the NHI would expect a reasonable standard of treatment, whichever institution they use.
The standards strategy is part of the department's 10-point plan contained in its strategic plan for 2009-10/2011-12.
- This article was originally published on page 1 of The Star on November 25, 2009
Durban
