Media statement by North West Health MEC Dr Magome Masike during the press conference held at Orion Safari Lodge in Rustenburg
Ladies and gentlemen of the media,
I welcome you to this important media briefing session. We are hosting the Provincial Health Consultative Forum in which various stakeholders have converged to be part of a solution to our challenges.
The Forum is also being used to update health stakeholders with the state of health services, intervention progress, turnaround strategy and the financial performance of the department since the implementation of Section 100 (1)(b) which put the Department under administration.
We have also called you here today in the midst of this Consultative Health Forum because we believe you are equally a very important stakeholder as members of the media. We have over the past few months responded to you on a number of issues affecting the North West Department of Health. I know that at this stage you now want to know how far are we in ensuring that we bring back stability to health serve delivery that is much needed by our people.
We come from a difficult period that our Province has not experienced in some time where we saw sustained labour unrest, community protests and disruptions of services in our facilities. We have learnt tough lessons but as a department we are always ready to respond to the commitment of the contract we have signed with the people of this Province and country who put us in government to lead them in pursuit of the delivery of quality health care services.
As the leadership at all levels of government we were always available to meet and take decisions that led to institution of investigations against all allegations raised by employees about a number of issues they raised about the Department.
We have appeared before the Portfolio Committee on Health and Social Development and before the Public Accounts Committee many times from since the allegations about wrong doings in the Department surfaced. We have also been appearing before National Parliament. We are an accountable Department and we had to be there to account all the way.
No doubt, the Department will not be able to provide quality health care services with dissatisfied employees. It is for this reason that we will continue to work together with the Administrator to address the challenges faced by our employees at administration level in the Provincial Office and at the coal face of service delivery in the Districts. The Administrator, Ms Jeanette Hunter is already at work to address challenges faced by our employees.
The team has developed the health sector intervention plan for the Province. The plan has identified areas of intervention and has begun to implement intervention plans in those identified areas. These include areas of financial management particularly to deal with irregular expenditure and accruals.
Supply Chain Management which is characterised by irregular supply chain and material deviation from procurement practices have been identified as carrying fiscal risks which end up draining the resources of the department.
The team has identified poor contract management particularly major contracts like Mediosa and Buthelezi. We can announce now that Mediosa contract has been cancelled. With regard to Buthelezi EMS and High Care EMS, the North West Department of Health has revised the scope of work for these two contracted private ambulance service providers. We had contracted these two service providers to do inter-facility transfers to allow state ambulances to focus on emergencies.
Effective from 1 June 2018, contracted private ambulance service providers will only respond to cases as and when called to do so by authorized personnel within the Department. Private Service providers will only be utilized in the event when provincial state resources are over stretched. We do this because these are order based contracts and the contracts are nearing the end. We have also purchased and subsequently registered 40 new ambulances which will close the gap when we revised the scope of private ambulances.
We have extended the suspension of the HOD to allow investigation to complete and to give time to a disciplinary process.
All issues raised by the labour union Nehawu as demands and areas of concerns are being attended to by the Intervention Team assisted by the Management Team of the Department, including the Performance Management Development System (PMDS).
Whilst we come from a difficult period and it seemed like we were doomed, it is important to remind ourselves of where we come from. This Department has a good track record. Just five years back, the North West Department of Health was only second to Western Cape in terms of health service delivery and good management of resources in the whole country.
We saw this Department go to greater heights to become became the first in the country to cure an XDR patient. We are now able to conduct operations of the cancers of the brain, spine and stomach operations and no longer have to take patients to Gauteng for that. Through a partnership between Klerksdorp-Tshepong Hospital, Job Shimankana Tabane Hospital and Netcare Ferncrest, a cardiac catheterization was successfully performed to a patient leading to the first ever heart operation in the Province.
Twenty (20) further patients with heart conditions has since seen successful heart operations and resumed their normal productive lives. The same capable health specialists and dedicated support staff at administration level and in our facilities are still with us. Much more can still be done!
I believe is now getting back on track to deliver quality services to the people of the Province.
I thank you!
