Hospitals: Northern Cape, Limpopo, Free State, KZN Departments of Health

The Portfolio Committee on Health met with Northern Cape (NC), Limpopo, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Departments of Health (DoH) to receive presentations on the status of their hospitals, after having received a briefing from the Accountant General on their budget allocations. The meeting also sought answers to questions based on the recent report from the Office of Health Standards Compliance (OHSC). Highlights of the brief of the NC DoH included the reengineering process that had been focused on innovative ways to plan and re-align the budget, and the steps taken to reduce its accruals and capacitate the pharmaceutical section to ensure better service delivery. It also provided an overview of the health facilities, the status of care quality, medical equipment in each hospital, medicine management and availability, infrastructure planning and maintenance, progress on its human resources plan, challenges on emergency medical services and transportation, its governance and leadership, its financial systems, and delegations and referral systems. The Committee expressed concern about the statistics in the OHSC report, and asked the DoH questions about issues involving its specialists; accruals; emergency service personnel; the status of ideal clinics, the district health system, primary health care (PHC) and the burden of disease; the functionality of its 14 hospital boards; and its referral system. The Committee requested it to forward detailed written reports on the Kimberley mental hospital challenges, its Central Chronic Medication Dispensing and Distribution (CCMDD), its Institute of Certified Records Managers (ICRM) accreditation of district hospitals, its disaster preparedness, and its responses on OHSC report and medico legal claims. Limpopo DoH reported on its governance and leadership strategy, the district health system planning framework, its health care restructuring plans and its referral system. Other highlights included the its inability to cope