of health services in our facilities
16 October 2006
The North West Department of Health has received a number of complaints
through the media which makes various allegations about poor services in our
facilities in the past month. We have addressed most of these concerns by
responding to media enquiries and in other instances writing formal articles in
the print media and engaging affected families especially on the services we
provide and the constrains thereof, in particular the background of where we
come from and how far are we in terms of addressing the legacy of the past.
The democratic government has put in place systems and institutions that
protect the rights of all the citizens against any form of abuse, breach or
neglect on the part of anyone including government. We have institutions like
independent judiciary, public protector and human rights commission.
These include the independence of the media to report any matter of
allegation of neglect by government departments and/or their staff; of course
to balance their story they need to solicit reaction or perspective from the
affected department.
The Department wishes to state the few recent examples of cases which the
media has made valuable enquiries like the recent article in the mail about
"another mental patient dies at Bophelong" and this particular incident is
receiving necessary attention, and proper response will soon be availed to the
family members, but the question we should ask ourselves is to what extent are
we addressing the affected families through the media and how do we help them
understand what happened and interpret clinical information to these important
clients. We surely can't divulge clinical information about any individual to
the media; that can only be done to the family members.
The Department of Health will be opening up a call centre which members of
the public can phone free of charge using all the major languages used in the
North West province. This is done to allow our people to raise their concern
with the Department any day, any time, especially ordinary rural and poor
citizens of our province who do not even have a medical aid. This centre will
be officially launched at least by the end of this financial year. We also need
to make a call to all our people to feel free to call the office of the MEC or
head of the department (HoD) during working hours to enquire or formally write
a letter of complaint regarding any matter of service delivery the community is
concerned about.
We also wish to encourage our people to use our governance structures like
hospital boards to raise their concerns because those people are elected to
service the people and to ensure that our people receive optimum healthcare
which they deserve. The ward committees and ward councillors are an immediate
point of contact in case you don't know your governance structures because they
also have been elected to ensure that you the people are satisfied with the
service you receive from government.
The Department has also within the quality assurance unit established a
clinical investigating committee that will look at all clinical enquiries
including the Bophelong issue, investigate and find facts about them and make
formal recommendations to the MEC and head of the department on the necessary
actions to be followed. We will not be dragged into a discussion on allegations
made against our staff till the allegations are proven otherwise by a formally
appointed body like Clinic Investigation Council (CIC).
The Patients Rights Charter dictates that nurses, doctors and any other
health official within our hospital, clinics and health centres are expected to
master the spirit of ubuntu and treat patients with dignity and respect. We
also view any transgression of any public service regulations or code of
conduct in serious light. We do not want to lose dignity that we have got after
attaining our hard won freedom in our country. We, however, acknowledge the
fact that most of our nurses are working under strenuous conditions as a
results of shortages of health professionals. The Department will, however,
continue to encourage recipients of our health service to voice out their
grievances if they feel that they are being ill-treated.
"Raise your voice our health professionals are ready to help."
Contact:
Zakes Molala
Acting departmental spokesperson
Tel: (018) 387 5830
Fax: (018) 387 5830
E-mail: lmolala@nwpg.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Health, North West Provincial Government
16 October 2006
Source: North West Provincial Government (http://www.nw.gov.za/)
