The North West MEC for Health, Dr Magome Masike has called on managers of his department to immediately attend to all outstanding maintenance work and upgrading of clinics in the province. This follows a number of visits to various clinics in the province by the MEC of which his aim was to assess the conditions in which the nurses work. The visit revealed that a number of facilities require renewal of paint work, fixing of fence, furniture and general maintenance of the buildings and their surroundings.
“We want our nurses to be productive and the best way of getting them to be productive is to improve their working conditions. Our facilities must reflect a healthy environment and they must be seen from outside as places of healing.”
Post his visit to the clinics, MEC Masike called urgent meeting with his Capital Planning Manager and instructed that a programme of action with clear target dates must be developed and implemented within the current financial year as there is still budget available for maintenance of facilities.
Dr Masike’s arrival at the Department of Health has herald a new lease of life, a new working culture and managers and employees alike are beginning to identify with his vision and work ethics. He has been described by employees as showing compassion, desire for result and only wanting the best for his employees and communities in particular. Dr Masike is clearly endearing himself to his employees and the more productive they become the sooner he will endear himself to the broader health stakeholders and the ever needy communities of the province.
As a doctor himself, Masike has called on all health professionals to respect the profession.“It must be a good feeling to serve your own people. As doctors our job is to save lives and we must work hard to restore the dignity and the respect that the health profession is all about”.
According to the MEC, this can only be achieved by “getting back to the basics”. He said getting back to the basics is about doing things right, getting health professionals to love doing their job by improving their working conditions and effectively implementing all quality areas of healthcare. He put emphasis on cleanliness and changing attitudes of employees especially health professionals.
Enquiries:
Tebogo Lekgethwane
Department Spokesperson
Cell: 0829299958
E-mail: tlekgethwane@nwpg.gov.za
