Massive Frere reforms

SWEEPING CHANGES: Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, with Health MEC Nomsa Jajula, makes a point at Frere yesterday. Picture: ALAN EASON

New equipment, more staff and bigger budgets, pledges minister

NATIONAL Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang yesterday announced a basket of reforms for Frere Hospital’s maternity unit following the Daily Dispatch baby death investigation.

Among the sweeping changes recommended by a ministerial task team were:

l A 10-fold increase in the hospital’s maintenance budget from R3,5m to R35m;

l The urgent recruitment of clinical and support staff;

l Measures to urgently address gaps in infection control procedures;

lAn additional labour ward to cope with the high number of deliveries;

l The acquisition of six additional CTGs (foetal heart monitors) and one ultrasound scanner; and

l The purchase of new incubators and neo-natal ventilators to replace faulty ones.

Changes were already being made ahead of this weekend’s visit by Tshabalala-Msimang to the hospital.

Nurses there said some wards were being refurbished with new linen, curtains, blinds and silver bins. Trees were also pruned and security lights installed on the outside, while inside, private cleaning companies worked around the clock.

Following her tour, Tshabalala-Msimang read a prepared statement, couched in cautious terms, which contained a summary of the findings and recommendations of a government report on Frere’s maternity section.

The report was compiled, following a three-day visit to the hospital last week, by the Minister’s adviser, Professor Ronald Green-Thompson; Chief Director for Hospital Services, Dr Thabo Sibeko; and Director for Women’s Health, Dr Nat Khaole.

Most findings corroborated Dispatch reports that revealed a litany of problems, including critical staff shortages, high numbers of avoidable baby deaths, shoddy record-keeping and wards manned by inexperienced interns.

The Dispatch also found internal documents that pointed to a dire shortage of equipment but the task team could not find any evidence linking the death of a single baby to insufficient equipment.

Accompanied by Premier Nosimo Balindlela, Health MEC Nomsa Jajula and other senior Bhisho officials, Tshabalala-Msimang dismissed Dispatch articles about the lack of equipment, saying these had been “blown out of proportion”.

“Therefore, the statement that health workers ‘play God’ and decide which patient lives or dies because of acute shortages of equipment was found not to be true,” she said.

But in the next breath, she announced that six faulty incubators would be replaced and additional neo-natal ventilators purchased. Six more CTGs and an ultrasound scanner were on order, Green-Thompson added later.

Tshabalala-Msimang admitted that the “main area of concern” was the shortage of staff. “There is an urgent need to increase the number of porters, messengers, general assistants and clerical staff and ensure that these categories of health workers are available at all times so that clinical staff can focus on what they have been trained to do.”

Nurses had complained to the Dispatch that they could not provide patients with quality care because they were forced to perform extensive administrative duties.

The Minister said the high mortality rates, revealed by the Dispatch, were due to the number of referrals from outlying areas which were included in the statistics.

“The District Health System must be strengthened to reduce the number of unnecessary referrals and enable the hospital to concentrate on the high-risk patients and thereby improve the peri-natal outcomes.”

Task team members later dismissed documents used by the Dispatch, claiming that minutes of weekly ante-natal clinic review meetings were nothing but informal notes.

The DA’s Gareth van Onselen said he plans to ask the minister why her deputy, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge called the maternity unit a “national emergency”.

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