The Gauteng Department Health (GDoH) has reiterated its commitment to cooperate with duly constituted oversight bodies as part of efforts to strengthen governance and improve healthcare service delivery.
The Department derives its mandate from the South African Constitution, the National Health Act, Act 61 of 2003 and other legislation promulgated by Parliament.
The same Constitution under section 55 and 114 mandates both the National Assembly and the Provincial Legislatures respectively to exercise oversight over executive organs which include public hospitals.
Furthermore, the Constitution makes provision of Chapter 9 institutions which are independent and established to, amongst other functions, strengthen constitutional democracy, to exercise oversight over state institutions.
Within the context of South Africa, there is also civil society and community-based organisations including an array of political parties all of whom enjoy constituency-based support of one form or another. These organisations regularly interface with government institutions through various avenues including playing an oversight role in the public interest.
However, conducting the oversight role in public hospitals must be done in compliance with other laws such as those protecting patient privacy and hospital operations and assumes that those conducting oversight are acting in good faith.
The Department on its part has an obligation to ensure that hospital operations are not disrupted, and that patient care is not compromised. Therefore, the MEC as the Executive Authority has the responsibility to ensure compliance with regulations and standards in public hospitals, which can be compromised when oversight visits occur without proper coordination.
Additionally, hospital management must safeguard patient privacy and operational integrity which may necessitate limiting access during certain visits. It is for this reason that oversight visits must be carefully managed to mitigate their potentially intrusive nature, while at the same time ensuring full accountability to the public.
Given the nature of our environment, the Department receives requests from legislative bodies, Chapter 9 institutions and other civic organisations to visit health facilities. These organisations are always requested to provide specifics of their visits to enable relevant officials to prepare reports accordingly.
The fact that an organisation has made a request to conduct an oversight visit does not mean that permission will be granted automatically. Such requests fall within the ambit of parliamentary liaison and are processed through the Office of the MEC. No facility or District has the authority to grant or deny permission for an oversight visit. It is rather unfortunate that the Department has observed the politicisation of the oversight function over a period of time.
Legislators from various parties who are part of Legislature oversight bodies often conduct party-driven oversight over and above the work done by the constitutionally mandated bodies. This often leads to duplication of efforts and means that healthcare workers spend more time attending to these visits which end up competing with their core areas of work. While public health facilities are easily accessible to the public, it is important that oversight visits are managed in a coordinated way to ensure that patient care and operations are not negatively impacted.
The GDoH on its part always makes an endeavour to accommodate such visits within reasonable limits.
SOURCED FROM THE GPG WEBSITE.
