M Tshabalala-Msimang: Opening of George Hospital

30 June 2006

Programme Director
Honourable MEC of Health Mr Pierre Uys
Honourable MEC of Public Works and Transport Marius Fransman
Head of Western Cape Department of Health Prof KC Househam
Senior Superintendent of George Hospital Dr Beverley-Anne Pedro
Health professionals and officials present
Community members of the South Cape Karoo Region
ANC Regional Committee
Honourable guests
Ladies and gentlemen
A very good morning to you all

Indeed today is a day of celebration for all of us and it does not matter
what political party you belong to. Today, we are celebrating the fruits of our
liberation. It is a matter of record that this government inherited a health
system fraught with inequalities and disparities. It is against this backdrop
that after 1994, the new government gave priority to the improvement of health
infrastructure for the benefit of the historically disadvantaged communities in
our country.

Key among these interventions was the need to strengthen primary health care
through our clinic-upgrading programme, and through the hospital refurbishment
and revitalisation programme, to improve access to quality health care. This
was because of the poor state of our facilities and we needed to upgrade this
in line with our service delivery objectives based on accessibility,
affordability, equity and sustainability.

You will recall that we initiated the Revitalisation of Hospitals Programme
three years ago. This programme, amongst other things, is precisely aimed at
dealing with the infrastructure issues that contribute to the kinds of problems
that we have experienced in some of our hospitals. The Hospital Revitalisation
Programme also serves as a strategy for the retention of health professionals,
especially in the remote under-served areas of our country, by improving their
working environment. We have 48 hospitals enrolled in the programme, and this
‘state of the art’ George Hospital is one of the facilities to benefit from
this programme. The total cost of the revitalisation project of this hospital
is R90 million. This 265-bed hospital serves 550 000 people in the region.

In addition to this hospital, eight new hospitals are being designed, 16 are
in the tendering stage and 24 are being constructed and we will be opening two
other hospitals, one in Limpopo and the other in Eastern Cape, as part of this
programme this year. We have already completed and opened four other hospitals
in the country including Kimberley and Chief Albert Luthuli Hospitals.
Currently, we have 400 public hospitals in the country, serving more than 43
million people, whilst the private health sector takes care of only 7 million
principal members of the medical aid schemes. We do still have a long way to go
to improve accessibility.

The benefit of the Revitalisation project for patients lies in the fact that
contrary to popular belief, public health facilities can offer quality
healthcare and operate similar, if not better, than private institutions.
Patients and health professionals have already expressed views that they cannot
believe that George Hospital is a government hospital. Our aim is not to do
better than private hospitals; rather it is to convince our patients that they
are entitled to this quality health service that we are providing, and that
they themselves have a major role to play in assisting us in maintaining this
level of service.

One of our ten strategic priorities for the health system that we have
agreed on for this term of this government 2004-2009, is to “strengthen primary
health care, emergency medical services and hospital service delivery system”.
All our plans and actions must be seen to contribute to this vision.

I am aware that some people strongly believe that this government either
does not plan or just plans and talks with no visible delivery. But, as I have
illustrated, this is for those who have eyes to see. George Hospital is the
visible demonstration of what this government’s broader plan seeks to
achieve.

We have had some challenges over the years. For example, we had to deal with
the control of infections at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal
last year. This facility was built during the previous regime, and the design
of the hospital cannot adequately cater for the needs of our patients. This is
part of the problem, we have inherited. The events that followed at this
hospital, which serves a population of 1,6 million people, resulted in the
unfortunate deaths of babies. Again, we would like to extend our deepest
condolences and sympathies to all the families affected. We appointed a Task
Force to determine the causes of the deaths and to determine the incidence of
nosocomial infections as a cause of neonatal deaths at intensive care units,
with specific reference to infection caused by Klebsiella species.

Programme Director, neonatal deaths are an area of serious concern of many
health care systems in the world, even in the developed world. The magnitude of
the problem is underlined by the World Health Organisation’s report of 1989.
The report states that four million neonates die each year in the world, 96% of
which are in low-income countries. It is therefore important that the neonatal
deaths, which occurred at Mahatma Gandhi, be viewed in this context.

The deaths were presumably due to infection on the basis of clinical signs,
but were no confirmed by positive blood cultures. Infection both congenital and
acquired accounted for some of the deaths, prematurity and severity of disease
were also found to have contributed to a number of the deaths, and yes,
Klebsiella infection was associated with some of the deaths.

The Department of Health introduced a number of measures to strengthen
infection control at the hospital, and I hope we will not have to deal with the
same problem at this hospital. We have infection control systems in place to
ensure that there is no repeat of that infection here at George Hospital. The
neonatal unit at Mahatma Gandhi was redesigned to improve infection control,
while physical space between neonates has also been optimised. Hand washing
facilities and sluice rooms has been upgraded. New equipment has been purchased
to avoid sharing and the potential for cross-contamination.

Every effort has been made by the paediatric team and hospital management to
control overcrowding. We will further build two new hospitals in Durban to
attend to the problem of overcrowding. The budget allocation for the
Revitalisation Programme is R1,4 billion in this financial year, R1,7 billion
in 2007/08 and R1,9 billion in 2008/09

With all this, we are trying to do our best to correct the inefficiencies of
the past. When we say that our future will be better than our past, we mean it,
and we expect all health workers and our communities to assist us to achieve
this goal.

I am pleased to announce that George Hospital is the first regional hospital
that has benefited from this revitalisation programme. I would like to thank
and congratulate the provincial departments of Health and Public Works to be
the first one to achieve this milestone. I would also like to pass a word of
encouragement to the leadership in this province in accelerating the
construction of hospitals in Khayelitsha and Mitchell’s Plan in particular, to
deliver services that suite the needs of the population. It is within this
context that the Western Cape Provincial Department of Health developed the
2010 strategy to undo the apartheid delivery model. We are expecting each and
every province to do the same.

I am delighted to learn that as a part of the George Hospital project an
environmental impact study was undertaken which introduced environmentally
friendly initiatives such as the protection of the endangered falcon species in
order to control your pigeon community and avoid the clogging of gutter. This
initiative will contribute in decreasing the maintenance costs for the hospital
buildings.

I wish to emphasise that the success of the revitalisation programme will
not be judged on the number of hospitals we have constructed or refurbished,
but on how well we maintain and manage our facilities. International experience
tells us that the challenge is not to build hospitals but to maintain them. One
of the most unfortunate mistakes we continuously make is that even after
investing millions in these hospitals, we do not allocate sufficient resources
towards maintaining the facilities and equipment.

I’m confident that the Western Cape Department of Health, in particular
George Hospital management, will heed my advice to ensure that sufficient
resources are allocated for the proper maintenance for the infrastructure and
equipment in this hospital.

The same goes for communities who will be using the health services at
George Hospital. I urge you, that as you make use of this facility, you do so
with utmost care as you would in your own home. I would like to encourage the
communities of George, South Cape Karoo and surroundings to embrace
government’s healthy lifestyle campaign to prevent and properly manage
illnesses. Leading an unhealthy lifestyle can put one at risk of developing
chronic diseases.

Let us not overburden our health system and this hospital with diseases that
can be prevented. Vuka! South Africa, Move for your health! I now declare the
new George Hospital officially opened.
Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Health
30 June 2006
Source: Department of Health (http://www.doh.gov.za)