Question NW2461 to the Minister of Health

Reply:

10 In 2018, Ministers of Health and of Police met to discuss safety and security challenges emanating from the incident where a Dr was shot at in Limpopo at Letaba Hospital. It was resolved that an inter departmental task team should be established comprising SAPS, PSIRA, DLE, SSA and all Provincial Security Managers to develop a safety and security strategy to address security challenges.

2. In this regard, a Task Team through National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NATJOINS) developed a plan with the following deliverables:

• Development of security infrastructure norms and standards
• Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) between SAPS and Department of Health
• Deployment of Reservist at identified hot spot hospitals
• Development of a Health Security Dispensation
• Physical assessment of hot spot hospitals
• Normalisation of hot spot hospitals and safety of EMS practitioners

Progress to date

The following table reflects progress to date

Deliverables	Progress
Development of security infrastructure norms and standards	Done: Infrastructure Unit Support Systems (IUSS) was developed and Gazetted. This is a document developed for health facilities and provides norms and standards, which include security services.
Memorandum of Agreement between SAPS and Department of Health	Done: MOA for collaboration was developed and signed by both the Director-General of Health and the National Commissioner of South African Police Services
Deployment of Reservist at identified hot spot hospitals	Work in progress: Costing for the development of police Reservists was done, waiting for provinces to request for deployment when required
Development of a Health Security Dispensation (in-sourcing of security)	Work in progress: Dependent on inputs from provincial in-sourcing strategy and/or hybrid model, which would then be consolidated into a nation strategy. These are still outstanding.
Physical assessment of hot spot hospitals	Done: Assessments were conducted at all hot spot hospitals and recommendations were submitted to relevant HoDs for implementation.

 

3. In addition to the establishment of the task team by both Ministers (Health and SAPS), NDoH has established a team to facilitate the implementation of safety and security strategy emanating from NATJOINTS comprising South African Medical Association (SAMA), Medical Women Association of South Africa (MWASA), Provincial Security Managers and Organised Labour.

4. The National Department of Health internal team came up with the following action plan:

• Expand membership of the Forum to incorporate other key stakeholders.
• The Forum will be the sub-committee to the Technical NHC
• Provinces must submit their needs for intervention and indicate hotspots hospitals for deployment of Reservists, number and period for deploying the Reservists and lastly indicate if funding is available.
• Health Care Workers and In-house Security Officers must be trained while Private Security should be retrained every six months.
• Provinces to provide copies of their current Service Level Agreement (SLA) to NDoH which will help the Forum to develop a universal SLA.
• The Forum will develop standardized security services specifications.
• Provinces to conduct and provide capacity and competency database audits and submit to NDoH.
• Provinces must report security breaches to NDoH promptly on a continuous basis.

5. CONCLUSION

Both NATJOINTS task team led by SAPS and internal stakeholder’s security committee are meeting on continuous basis with the view to ensure that all provinces implement the strategy.

 

END.