Africa-Press – South-Africa. KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane has cracked the whip and called on newly appointed hospital CEOs to be more accessible to the public.
She appointed a group of new CEOs on Thursday and urged them to treat patients “with care and dignity, and to find creative problem-solving skills to address challenges they may come across”.
Her warning was extended to CEOs and other managers who refused to publicly display their contact detail switched off their phone or gave incorrect contact details.
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“They would be putting themselves at risk of being charged for insubordination as the publication of such details is now departmental policy.”
Simelane said that while she did not mind receiving calls with complaints about health facilities in the early hours of the morning, CEOs had to be more accessible and responsible.
She said:
She added that there was a hierarchy “for a reason in a healthcare facility”.
“You are called a CEO and manager for a reason. You are expected to manage every single person in the facility. And someone who can’t be managed by you must then go and be managed elsewhere. If they can’t take instructions from you as the CEO, then they must leave.
“Yes, we don’t want people to leave willy-nilly, but we also don’t want chaos. So, as managers, make sure that you stamp your authority. It’s not about being rude or arrogant, but knowing your responsibility and authority and power as manager, and making sure everyone accounts to the authority that is there.”
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One of her biggest gripes was errant staff who “take tea breaks en masse, leaving patients stranded”.
This was a common complaint, she said.
“As managers, it’s an indictment on yourselves that you have patients who wait on the units, just because those who are operating those units have decided to go on lunch, or on a tea break at the same time. How does it happen?
“Four people closing a pharmacy so they can go and have tea? Where is management? Management is about managing your human resources. When some go on a tea break, others must be there to serve the people. It’s just one of the small things that we can do that do not require money.”
She said CEOs needed to take a leaf out of the page of privately run hospitals.
She said:
“The poorest of the poor in our townships are the ones who should be getting this kind of treatment… they come to us because they have no other option. So, if we don’t treat them in a manner that they should be treated, then it means we don’t deserve whatever we get from the government or the positions we occupy.”
She also pointed out that creativity was vital in turning around state health facilities.
“When you know your facility has a problem of queues at, say between 07:00 and 10:00, do you have a plan on how to manage that? It might not even need you to employ more people, but it just might require you to rationalise your human resources properly. Sometimes, it might even require you as the manager to go and assist. You can be part of the solution.”
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