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Premier David Makhura has strongly urged government departments to maintain their facilities.

The Premier on Thursday, 14 September 2017 paid a visit to the Steve Biko Academic Hospital.  He was accompanied by MECs for Health Dr Gwen Ramokgopa and Infrastructure Development, Jacob Mamabolo.

The visit is part of the Premier’s regular unannounced visits to frontline service delivery sites to improve services to the public. The visit to the hospital was prompted by a number of complaints ranging from long queues and lifts that are not working. “I want to send a strong message to every government department to maintain their facilities because service delivery interruptions have a direct effect on the economy,” said Makhura.

The Department of Infrastructure Development brought contractors on site and assured the Premier that all the lifts will be fixed and that there will be regular checks as part of the maintenance plan. So far, nine lifts out of 28 have been fixed and the department has appointed a resident engineer to ensure a speedy response.

“I want to urge all the medical aids who owe the department money to pay their debts as failure to do so has a direct impact on service delivery. We must collect money so that we can make sure that we save lives. Healthcare is about saving lives and our priority is treating patients,” said Makhura.

“We want facilities that work and provide the best services to our people.  I am going to revisit the hospital to assess service delivery, the state of infrastructure and staffing challenges,” he said.

Meanwhile, MEC Ramokgopa urged patients to utilise the cluster approach where patients can collect their medications at the nearest healthcare facilities in an effort to reduce overcrowding.

The Department of Health services 23 million patients per annum from Gauteng, neighbouring provinces and SADC countries. The hospital (Steve Biko) services 450 000 patients per annum from Limpopo, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and North-West with a total budget of R2 billion per annum.

Issued by the Gauteng provincial Government