A recent assessment by the country’s health standards body suggests that conditions at the Eastern Cape’s Holy Cross Hospital have dramatically improved.
Just under two years ago, doctors raised concerns over the state of the Flagstaff hospital’s infrastructure, human resources, equipment, medication and supplies, food, TB services, ambulances and management.
Inspections by the independent Office of Health Standards Compliance (OHSC) in September and October 2014 uncovered a number of issues affecting the functioning of the facility, which saw them scoring a gruesome 43% post-assessment.
However, a follow-up assessment has the hospital scoring 60%.
Health MEC Dr Pumza Dyantyi bragged about this turnaround during her policy speech last month.
Dr Sam Beja, general manager of quality healthcare assurance systems, said the national Department of Health, at Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi’s instruction, had put together a system for assessing its facilities and called this the national core standards.
He said the standards had seven domains which concerned patient safety, clinical governance, availability of medicines and clinical management. These he said were ministerial priorities, also known as non-negotiables.
“During the initial assessment, Holy Cross did badly, scoring 43%. The compliance standard is 80% actually, but scoring 50% means you are on the right track,” Beja said.
He said following the initial results, officials had visited the facility to check on the situation and help staff find solutions to improve their services.
The OHSC schedules its reassessments three to six months following its initial visit.
“It’s a very rigorous assessment. They require a portfolio of evidence. They do random interviews with staff and patients and it is always a surprise visit,” said Beja.
“There shouldn’t be any reason why any facility should not be able to pass this assessment. It’s like an open book exam,” he said, explaining that what was required pertained to the basic running of these facilities.
Therefore an intervention was to firm up what was already there.
Beja said the aim was to achieve a good service delivery by ensuring those things that were necessary for the smooth running of a facility were not only met through budget, but also in practice. Where a facility was found wanting they had to go back to the drawing board and map out a coherent plan with clear deadlines.
“These assessments assist public facilities to increase their quality ahead of the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme. For NHI, before rendering services as a facility, the OHSC has to give you a certificate to say you are fit to deliver these services,” Beja said.
He said these assessments were cyclical and ongoing to ensure standards improved and were never dropped. — vuyiswav@dispatch.co.za
Holy Cross hospital on the right track
Just under two years ago, doctors raised concerns over the state of the Flagstaff hospital’s infrastructure, human resources, equipment, medication and supplies, food, TB services, ambulances and management.
Inspections by the independent Office of Health Standards Compliance (OHSC) in September and October 2014 uncovered a number of issues affecting the functioning of the facility, which saw them scoring a gruesome 43% post-assessment.
However, a follow-up assessment has the hospital scoring 60%.
Health MEC Dr Pumza Dyantyi bragged about this turnaround during her policy speech last month.
Dr Sam Beja, general manager of quality healthcare assurance systems, said the national Department of Health, at Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi’s instruction, had put together a system for assessing its facilities and called this the national core standards.
He said the standards had seven domains which concerned patient safety, clinical governance, availability of medicines and clinical management. These he said were ministerial priorities, also known as non-negotiables.
“During the initial assessment, Holy Cross did badly, scoring 43%. The compliance standard is 80% actually, but scoring 50% means you are on the right track,” Beja said.
He said following the initial results, officials had visited the facility to check on the situation and help staff find solutions to improve their services.
The OHSC schedules its reassessments three to six months following its initial visit.
“It’s a very rigorous assessment. They require a portfolio of evidence. They do random interviews with staff and patients and it is always a surprise visit,” said Beja.
“There shouldn’t be any reason why any facility should not be able to pass this assessment. It’s like an open book exam,” he said, explaining that what was required pertained to the basic running of these facilities.
Therefore an intervention was to firm up what was already there.
Beja said the aim was to achieve a good service delivery by ensuring those things that were necessary for the smooth running of a facility were not only met through budget, but also in practice. Where a facility was found wanting they had to go back to the drawing board and map out a coherent plan with clear deadlines.
“These assessments assist public facilities to increase their quality ahead of the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme. For NHI, before rendering services as a facility, the OHSC has to give you a certificate to say you are fit to deliver these services,” Beja said.
He said these assessments were cyclical and ongoing to ensure standards improved and were never dropped. — vuyiswav@dispatch.co.za
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