Question NW400 to the Minister of Health

Reply:

There are many testimonies from South Africans of excellent service received at both PHC facilities and hospitals, however there are pockets of incidents where our patients experience poor service delivery. The NDoH however takes every specific incident of poor service received seriously, and endeavour to provide redress and reduce such incidents in the future.

The Department is implementing various quality improvement interventions to ensure the provision of quality health care at health facilities which include the following:

• Ideal facility monitoring system which provides a platform for all health facilities to track the facility self-assessment progress, quality improvement interventions and the remedial actions taken to ensure compliance with standards.
• Implementation of Quality learning centres which is a cluster of facilities in a geographic area made up of hospitals, primary health care and private hospitals to facilitate an integrated approach to quality improvement through mentorship.
• Clinical Governance structures that are responsible and accountable for continuous improvement of the quality of care rendered at facilities and ensures best clinical outcomes for patient care.
• Patient waiting times are monitored and provinces support facilities to improve on waiting times.
• Patient safety incidence committees where adverse events are reported and analysed, and quality improvement plans are implemented.
• The National Department of Health has instituted a formal system of obtaining feedback on patients’ experience of care that they receive in public health establishments, through the patient experience of care surveys. Reports from these surveys guide continuous quality improvement of care.
• Office of Health Standards Compliance (OHSC) which monitor and enforce compliance by health establishments with norms and standards prescribed by the Minister of Health.

END.