Premier not happy with health care: Are you?
He announced that at least 10 modern high-tech hospitals would be developed over the next three years. These hospitals would range in size from 400 to 600 bed facilities. Lydenburg Provincial Hospital might bethe first to be demolished and relocated to make land available.
MBOMBELA – Premier Mr David Mabuza admitted on Friday during his State of the Province Address (Sopa) that provincial government was not yet satisfied with the public health-care system.
One of the greatest challenges they currently faced was that of infrastructure backlogs in the context of limited fiscal resources as well as population-growth pressures.
“Population-growth pressures and years of underinvestment have left our health-care infrastructure in a poor state,” Mabuza said.
He suggested that the focus should shift to modern high-tech hospitals. “We must begin to explore innovative ways of building modern high-tech hospitals to revolutionise the delivery of health-care services to Mpumalanga citizens.”
He announced that at least 10 modern high-tech hospitals would be developed over the next three years. These hospitals would range in size from 400 to 600 bed facilities. Lydenburg Provincial Hospital might bethe first to be demolished and relocated to make land available.
He said in order for government to achieve this objective, partnership with the private sector was a necessity. Notwithstanding current challenges, Mabuza said he was pleased that some significant gains had been made in stabilising the Mpumalanga Department of Health and he said there were clear indications that the department was heading in the right direction.
The maternal mortality rate decreased from 146 per 1000 000 in 2012/2013 to 102,6 per 100 000 in 2014.
The department furthermore managed to reduce the cost of food by 30 per cent. They would continue to ensure that resources were available to address the system’s accessibility, functionality and service delivery and continue to take decisive action to address any instances of mismanagement, misappropriation and neglect.
“We have made some gains, we have assessed our results and where we have failed, we will learn and improve, where we have succeeded, we will scale up and sustain. Our government is committed to ensuring a long and healthy life for all our citizens. “
