JUBILEE District Hospital in Hammanskraal, Tshwane is still faced with many challenges including lack of clean water, sufficient beds and doctors, just to mention a few.
These came to light during an unannounced visit by the deputy minister for public service and administration, Dr Chana Pilane-Majake on Tuesday, 15 November.
Pilane-Majake heard that the hospital is still experiencing water challenges due to water tankers not arriving on time on some days.
Hospital CEO, Duduzile Mthethwa explained that the casualty ward is also a challenge as patients have to wait for a long time before they can be provided with immediate treatment for emergency cases.
“We are experiencing challenges, but we do our best to provide medical help to our patients. We request additional staff to take care of the patients. Beds are also not enough and our patients find it difficult to agree to being transferred to other hospitals, citing they will be far from their loved ones,” said Mthethwa.
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Speaking to Daily Sun, Pilane-Majake said unannounced visits at various service delivery points is what the government normally does to get the experience of how people are receiving services daily.
“We just show up unannounced because we don’t want things to be prepared and look good on the day we come. For now, we have gone through the entire hospital and there are areas that we are not happy with such as the casualty ward. The length of time that patients have to wait before they can be attended to is one of our concerns and we are told most of them are waiting for beds,” said Pilane-Majake.
“We are glad that there are new wards that have been built and we are happy about the states of the wards. Our people need to be given quality services and we want to promise them that we are committed to providing proper services. The CEO has acknowledged some of the challenges in some areas and as a leader, she needs to put her foot down and take unpopular decisions by not allowing some of the things to happen.”
One of the patients who had been waiting for a long time in the casualty ward said they are hoping things will change for the better after the deputy minister saw with her own eyes what patients go through on a daily basis at the hospital.
