DA Gauteng debates Motion on Hospital Boards

 

The following speeches were delivered in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature today by DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health, Jack Bloom MPL and DA Gauteng Spokesperson on SCOPA, Dr Heinrich Volmink MPL, during a debate on Hospital Boards and Clinic Committees in Gauteng.

Jack Bloom MPL

“Stronger boards can attract donors to improve quality care in hospitals”

• An effective Hospital Board and Clinic Committee can perform an invaluable role in raising the standards of health treatment;
• Donors are more likely to give when they are approached by a public-spirited board member with a specific project in mind. The Department should be encouraging this and making sure that they are making use of the skills and experience of those who give of their time to help our hard-pressed hospitals and clinics;
• Boards or Committees must actually have the powers and influence to do something about problems that they identify, they should be empowered to act.

The full speech can be obtained here.

Dr Heinrich Volmink MPL

“’You can’t manage what you can’t measure’”

• Out of 369 facilities in the province, only 143 have fully complemented Clinic Committees. This means that 226, or about 6 out of every 10 of the facilities do not have fully complemented Committees and, in fact, 39 out of those facilities have no Clinic Committees at all;
• If we consider how imperative good governance is to quality of care and then reflect on these deficiencies, we begin to understand some of the Department’s performance challenges; such as why, for example, only 71 out of 300 clinics measured in the province reached Ideal Clinic status;
• In terms of developing the capacity of these bodies, we would encourage the MEC to consider the DA’s Health Policy proposal entitled “Our Health Plan” where we emphasize the independence of such bodies so that they can fulfil their governance duties unencumbered by undue political influence.

The full speech can be obtained here.