Gauteng Health MEC Dr. Masuku addressed the media at the Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital in Soweto, on Monday, regarding the progress made in his first 100 days in office. Masuku announced that the department had managed to open a psychiatric ward at Helen Joseph hospital, Auckland Park, in the hope of tackling mental health issues.
MEC Masuku said, “While it’s still early days the past 100 days’ work indicates that the Gauteng health story is beginning to change and new optimism is emerging. We have set ourselves the ambitious goal of building a ‘people-centred, clinician-led stakeholder driven’ healthcare system. The system still has enormous challenges, opportunities and packets of excellence”.
In order to address these challenges the department has put in place a five-year programme to pursue the roll out of the National Health Insurance in order to achieve Universal Health Coverage, improve patients experience of care and raise staff morale, improve clinical services to ensure quality health outcomes, improve governance and leadership to ensure greater accountability and lastly pursue health education and health promotion to create awareness and mobilize the public towards healthy lifestyles
“In respect of the National Health Insurance, we have contributed immensely to the NHI Bill which is now published for public comment. By the end of 2019 we will have all our 24 hour Community Health Centers fully functional across the province with a budget of clinical services, etc. In terms of improving patients’ experience of care and raising staff morale, we have met the SOPA commitment of putting a plan for not only five but ten hospitals that will get special upgrades in the current financial year. The department has finally decided to officially launch uMpilo today. Mpilo is one of our IT solutions to handling complaints in the system. More importantly, we need to drive the complaints traffic away from ‘fake news’ and reduce the vulnerability of patient rights and the breach of medical ethics. The digital revolution is already underway in Gauteng Health. The app will be available on Friday 13th September 2019”.
The MEC was hands on at Chris Hani hospital as he celebrated gynecologist day by treating patients and working unpaid hours at the hospital. He also encouraged the community to use the Mpilo app to access health services and move on with the times as we entered a new era of the 4th industrial revolution.
