The Gauteng Health Department has received Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) donations to the tune of R4.5 million from hospital group, Mediclinic.
This is as hospitals continue the fight against COVID-19.
Acting Health MEC Jacob Mamabolo received the donations on behalf of the department at Kalafong Hospital in Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria.
With hospitals under pressure to maintain safe and quality care, the health department has welcomed the donation which comes at a time it is faced with a PPE corruption tender scandal.
The hospital, which previously encountered PPE shortages, is among those located at a COVID-19 hotspot. The hospital says the donation will go a long way in ensuring that workers remain protected during the pandemic.
“The shortage is there and I think not only for us in Kalafong but all public hospitals, because I think there’s high usage. So, we always have to monitor the usage, the rationale use, we have to work very hard to ensure that people understand how to rationally use PPE,” says the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer Sello Matjila.
The donation is part of Mediclinic’s countrywide PPE donation worth R15 million.
These PPE donations will play an important role to strengthen the fight against the covid-19 pandemic. Fight against Coronavirus requires a joint effort by all sectors of society and this includes constant increasing of the resource capacity for our facilities. #GautengCOVID19 pic.twitter.com/TK6X6T9Ayo
— Gauteng Health (@GautengHealth) October 6, 2020
Medclinic’s Lehlohonolo Majake says the donation is a sign of the confidence they have in the public sector.
“We want to go beyond that of just purely donating but also look at models, particularly those that will feed into the National Health Insurance where we work on a fee for service structure which is essentially us a private sector being able to offer care to the public sector at a much lower rate.”
Meanwhile, Mamabolo also visited the Phomolong Taxi Rank, where he monitored adherence to COVID-19 regulations by taxi operators. Mamabolo raised concerns about the number of infections recorded in the area recently.
“This area of City of Tshwane, Atteridgeville, is one of the hotspots, one of the areas we are seeing an increase because it is an area of high infection rate. So, I have decided to visit this area because I want to be sure that in public transport we are sanitising the commuters, we are protecting the commuters against COVID-19.”
