Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane has announced ambitious plans to ramp up clinics in the province to be ready for the rollout of the National Health Insurance (NHI) system.
Speaking in Bhisho on Tuesday, Mabuyane said the provincial government wanted to increase the number of clinics achieving “ideal status” to 80% by 2024.
He said it had built eight state-of-the-art clinics in the OR Tambo region last year, and hoped to roll this out across the province.
The province’s primary health care facilities have, historically, been severely understaffed with shortages of medication.
In Nelson Mandela Bay, one of the biggest challenges has been the lack of adequate security at clinics and attacks on ambulance staff who respond to call-outs.
Mabuyane said the eight new clinics met the highest levels of infrastructure and diagnostic equipment standards.
This, he said, showed the province’s commitment to delivering quality health care services.
“We will prioritise filling of crucial vacant posts to address the human resource requirements,” he said.
Mabuyane used the opportunity to condemn the recent attacks on emergency services workers in the Bay, where three ambulance crews were targeted separately in just one week.
“These ambulances are here to provide a service to the people, not for people to take out their anger on them,” Mabuyane said.
He said the health care sector was focused on reducing the burden of disease and that meant intensifying the fight against TB, cancer and HIV/Aids.
“We have heard the concerns about the treatment and service received in our health centres and we are going to fix this by enforcing the culture of service standards envisaged by Batho Pele principles,” he said.
He noted the high number and costs of medical-legal claims and said there would be improvements to the provision of maternal and child health interventions focusing on the 26 highly litigated hospitals.
“We are also setting up a litigation unit in the office of the premier to fight all fraudulent medico-legal claims,” Mabuyane said.
Plan to upgrade clinics ahead of NHI rollout
Image: RANDELL ROSKRUGE
Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane has announced ambitious plans to ramp up clinics in the province to be ready for the rollout of the National Health Insurance (NHI) system.
Speaking in Bhisho on Tuesday, Mabuyane said the provincial government wanted to increase the number of clinics achieving “ideal status” to 80% by 2024.
He said it had built eight state-of-the-art clinics in the OR Tambo region last year, and hoped to roll this out across the province.
The province’s primary health care facilities have, historically, been severely understaffed with shortages of medication.
In Nelson Mandela Bay, one of the biggest challenges has been the lack of adequate security at clinics and attacks on ambulance staff who respond to call-outs.
Mabuyane said the eight new clinics met the highest levels of infrastructure and diagnostic equipment standards.
This, he said, showed the province’s commitment to delivering quality health care services.
“We will prioritise filling of crucial vacant posts to address the human resource requirements,” he said.
Mabuyane used the opportunity to condemn the recent attacks on emergency services workers in the Bay, where three ambulance crews were targeted separately in just one week.
“These ambulances are here to provide a service to the people, not for people to take out their anger on them,” Mabuyane said.
He said the health care sector was focused on reducing the burden of disease and that meant intensifying the fight against TB, cancer and HIV/Aids.
“We have heard the concerns about the treatment and service received in our health centres and we are going to fix this by enforcing the culture of service standards envisaged by Batho Pele principles,” he said.
He noted the high number and costs of medical-legal claims and said there would be improvements to the provision of maternal and child health interventions focusing on the 26 highly litigated hospitals.
“We are also setting up a litigation unit in the office of the premier to fight all fraudulent medico-legal claims,” Mabuyane said.
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