Govt gets raw deal from health sector - official
Leinanyana Tsiane | Wednesday August 27, 2014 15:40
She said the sector faces major challenges ranging from provision of quality and safe health care services. She was speaking at the National Health Quality Standards Dissemination Forum in Gantsi this week.
She said outcomes do not necessarily match the inputs the government has invested in health and as a result, patients do not get value for money.
She said the public is no longer complaining of non-availability of hospitals, clinics or other forms of health facilities but there are cries about poor services.
“It is now the quality and safety of services the public receives that is receiving attention,” Seipone said. She explained that national health quality standards have been developed to improve the quality and safety of healthcare and clinical effectiveness. The standards are meant to help patients and health service users to understand what to expect from well run health services.
The standards are used to provide a yardstick to measure facility performance to identify strengths and areas which need improvement. Seipone explained that in the past, patients expressed dissatisfaction with the services they get from government health facilities.
The people complained of attitude of some healthcare workers, cleanliness and safety of the health facilities, long queues and waiting hours. “Other areas of concern include inefficient clinical governance, inadequate infection prevention and control measures, partial compliance to patient and family rights charter,” she added.
She said many people still think of quality in terms of a patient seeing a doctor right away and courteous treatment by healthcare workers or a having the service provider spend a lot of time with him/her. She however said while all these are important, clinical outcomes are even more crucial.
The national health quality standards were developed in 2011 as of the strategic initiatives to improve the quality and safety of health services in the country.
Seipone told the forum that the Ministry of Health is currently reviewing existing Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Act of 1989 and the national health quality standards will be specifically articulated in the licensing conditions to make it compulsory.