Durban — The KwaZulu-Natal Health Portfolio Committee has revealed that most health institutions in the Harry Gwala District had failed to comply with healthcare norms and standards.
This was said by the committee’s chairperson, Nomakiki Majola, who led a delegation to monitor clinics and hospitals in the district on Wednesday and on Thursday.
On Wednesday the committee visited clinics at eMqatsheni, Tsatsi and Underberg, while Ibisu clinic and Roethlisberger hospital inspections were conducted on Thursday.
The visits included checking if the institutions had acceptable norms and standards of equipment and ensuring that each facility had paediatric, family planning, maternity, neonatal, resuscitation, gender-based violence and emergency rooms.
Speaking to the Daily News, Majola said it was the legislature’s duty to prioritise the primary healthcare services and functionality after the budget was appropriated to the departments.
She said this was based on what the department had promised to do and improve through the annual performance plan for health institutions.
“Starting with the human resources, we checked if these institutions were able to provide resources that would implement ward-based outreach primary healthcare approaches.
“We are following this up because we do understand that Covid-19 dealt with departmental workers very badly. They were at the forefront of the pandemic while it was attacking everyone.
“Some of these workers were old and some had retired, so we wanted to check whether they were still able to implement what the department intends to do (in terms of) human resources,” said Majola.
She said they had identified and recorded the gaps in most of the health facilities that were visited.
According to Majola, these are the findings:
* In Mqatsheni Clinic, reports and concerns were expressed that most of the community members were getting sick with diarrhoea due to the water problems experienced in the area.
* Tsatsi Clinic had issues with their waste disposal and the non-functional toilets. This shows that they did not have the equipment as per norms and standards. .
* The Underberg Clinic showed a visible shortage of staff and it is something that is affecting all these institutions. They are also experiencing a shortage of equipment.
* Ibisu Clinic doesn’t have enough space to keep the patients inside the waiting room. This has led them to stand in queues outside, regardless of the weather conditions.
* In Roethlisberger Hospital, the resuscitation rooms aren’t up to standard. While the gender-based violence rates are high, the hospital has no crisis centre to keep the victims for counselling.
Majola said it was unfair that the public had to endure bad experiences in places where they ought to get healthcare.
“We cannot have a situation where two consulting rooms will be sharing the equipment. What happens if there is a situation of a critical patient that immediately requires assistance? The healthcare workers wouldn’t have time to go up and down for the equipment,” said Majola.
She said they also identified what could assist clinics to help reduce the number of people coming to hospitals.
Daily News
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