The Eastern Cape Department of Health’s Integrated Strategic Planning unit hosted a three day information provision and sharing session towards the development of the new strategic plan for the Eastern Cape Department of Health at Mphekweni Beach Resort.
The purpose for the exercise was to introduce and communicate the new strategic imperatives of the national health sector, the acceleration of millennium development goals framework, the provincial strategic framework and the new proposed strategic goals and objectives of the department to the employees as well as to locate their functional areas to these mandates so as to close the operation and strategic gap that currently exist at head office.
According to Senior Manager Integrated Strategic Planning unit, Mr Luvuyo Tshoko, the unit had already engaged the senior management and regional management teams including the employees from levels one to five at district level and wanted to also involve the head office employees from level two to eight as they have been never been engaged before.
Mr Tshoko also mentioned that it was evident that majority of the employees appeared to be just working and unable to locate their functionality and responsibilities in terms of the strategic goals and imperatives and the implementation of the national and provincial new mandates for health hence the need the session to empower and inform them accordingly.
When asked about their expectations out of the session, the employees highlighted being able to give inputs on how they can strategise to give support to fellow employees in the districts and institutions for better service delivery, being capacitated fully and broadly about the strategies of the department as some of their expectations.
The employees were grouped into commissions where they engaged on issues like; what needs to be done to improve performance, discarding of things and systems that do not add value to the department, improving governance and compliance and strengthening of financial controls and systems, creating a conducive working environment for all employees to improve patient care, improving internal communications within the department, improving the quality of patient care in all health facilities and many other issues.
During the sessions, employees voiced out their concerns and frustrations in the sections they are working at and issues like management not communicating with subordinates, office space, and lack of training for employees and many other issues were raised. One of the employees, Mr Loyiso Bangeni from the salary administration section applauded the department for engaging the employees and mentioned that it would be great if they can go back and implement the outcomes of the session.
A team which was going to represent the employees at the executive management committee meeting was selected and they were going to raise the issues with the senior management of the department.
Issued by: Department of Health, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
2 November 2009
Source: Department of Health, Eastern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.ecdoh.gov.za/)
