In keeping with the main theme of this year’s Taking Parliament to The People, the National Council of Provinces’ (NCOPs’) delegation commenced its oversight visit with an assessment of 13 primary health care facilities in Botshabelo, a sprawling township on the outskirts of Bloemfontein.
This delegation experienced first-hand the state of health facilities that are at odds with what is expected of them. According to the acting area manager, Mr Tlopo Koalepe, the challenges facing the 13 primary health care facilities in Mangaug Metropolitan City stem from staff shortages, budget cuts, lack of infrastructure and the absence of standard operating plans.
Given the large population of Botshabelo that rely on these facilities, these challenges have put an unbearable pressure on their meagre resources and infrastructure. Members were told that budget cuts have, for instance, led to critical posts remaining vacant and services that are below the bare minimum.
“The compensation of employees was cut from R56 million to R46 million in this financial year. Goods and services budget allocation also decreased from R11 million to R9 million. That has hampered our ability to do what we would have liked to do in various areas of our health care services.
“Sadly, the budgetary cuts have affected our core operations. Currently, we have 220 warm bodies in our clinics. This is not an ideal situation. As a result, there is one team of district clinical specialists and six family health teams here in the entire district of Botshabelo.This is not enough to render a holistic primary health care as envisaged by our country’s primary health care policy framework.”
Coupled with that is the lack of proper health infrastructure and equipment that left many of these facilities at a dire state. A typical example is the Maletsatsi Mabaso Day Care Centre. This is the oldest clinic in Botshabelo, but it is also at odds with what is expected of a primary health care centre. The clinic is dilapidated and lacks the basics in equipment.
“It hurts to learn that there are children who are born in such a horrible facility. Even if your structure is old, it should at least be clean. A health facility cannot afford not to be healthy. What I see here is not acceptable and leaves much to be desired. This must be fixed, if we are serious enough about our country’s health charter,” said the representative of South African Local Government Association in the NCOP delegation and the Executive Mayor of Xhariep District Municipality, Ms Motshewa Sehanka.
Members of the delegation were also told that these facilities operate without standard operations plans. This has compromised the efficacy of outputs of services in critical areas. This could have severe consequences, because these plans are guides to the proper diagnosis of illnesses and the treatment of diseases, which impact on patient safety.
One of the members of the NCOP delegation and the Minority Whip at KwaZulu Natal Legislature, Mr Erickson Zungu, decried the Acting Area Manager’s report that failed to outline the risks of litigation posed by the absence of standard operation plans to the Department of Health.
“This report does not expand on these critical factors. Your report should speak to such major health concerns and scares that your facilities are faced with. Without frank assessment of your state of affairs, we cannot be in a position to help you to get these matters resolved.”
Another member of the NCOP delegation and Whip at the KwaZulu Natal Legislature, Ms Nomakiki Majola, said the state of the Maletsatsi Mabaso clinic shows that much needs to be done to fix the unacceptable condition of this clinic. “We cannot have a clinic that lacks in all respects. We need to get a much fuller report on these facilities and the Provincial Health Department must account as to how these deteriorating conditions were allowed to manifest under their watch. We demand accountability because our people deserve better.”
Abel Mputing
22 August 2017
Arrange a tour