Health MEC to improve services at Kgapane Hospital
In a pursuit to solve ailing services at the Kgapane Hospital in Bolobedu, the facilities managers have been sacked recently and work is underway to fix the situation.
Limpopo Health MEC, Dr Phophi Ramathuba, has appointed interim management and given the team 100 days to turn the situation around.
She has also pleaded to patients to utilise their local clinics for a while in order to help hospital staff deal with backlogs.
Slow services at the hospital prompted residents of Bolobedu to vent their grievances about the poor services patients have received at the hospital on social media.
A photograph of ill elderly women lying unassisted on a bench was posted on Facebook, drawing a lot of attention to the situation.
Also read: Kgapane Hospital in need of urgent resuscitation
According to MEC Ramathuba, poor management at the hospital is the main cause of the challenges, and so she introduced a new interim management team as a temporary solution while the process of appointing permanent new managers is in motion.
“When people get sick they must start by visiting their clinic to get a reference letter and only then go to hospital.
“Only those who are severely ill and are brought by ambulance can come straight to hospital.
“If we can get that right we will avoid these long queues,” said Ramathuba.
“What I saw on Facebook shocked me. If that was my mother, I would not want her to be so badly treated, so why should someone else’s mother go through that ordeal?
“That’s why this situation must be fixed and we must properly use our clinics and hospitals,” she added.
The health department has announced that they are in the process of equipping the Modjadjiskloof Clinic in order to transfer some maternity patients and outpatient departments there in order to bring relief to Kgapane Hospital.
The interim management was given 100 days to improve services at the hospital.
