Pholosong commits to upholding the national standards of health care

Tsakane – The office of standards compliance developed the National Core Standards (NCS) for health establishments in South Africa.

NCS aims to set the benchmark as well as monitor the quality of care and the delivery of services.

Last Friday, Pholosong Hospital hosted the NCS awareness campaign to educate the community and patients about the standards of health care expected at Pholosong and at every health institution.

“This year’s focus was on patient safety under the theme “Driving patient safety through National Core Standards,” explains Thabisile Mkhwanazi, the hospital’s communications officer.

The message to the community, patients and staff was about ensuring quality nursing and clinical care and ethical practice.

Pholosong managers and staff committed themselves in front of the community and officials that they will uphold the National Core Standards at all times.

Nursing Services Manager, Fikile Mabuza, urged the staff to continue to do their best every day and to ensure compliance in order to improve on the results of the assessments in all areas in the institution.

“The hospital has to comply with legislative requirements that assist health professionals to ensure that patients are at the epicentre of care,” says Yvonne Skhosana, Director of Training and Education in the Gauteng Health Department.

“Health professionals should try at all times to adhere to these standards to drive the cause to reach the ultimate goal of successfully saving lives and caring for the vulnerable patients in our community,” she adds.

The NCS are divided into seven domains which cover issues of safety of patients and their rights, clinical governance and care, clinical support services, public health, leadership and corporate governance as well as operational management of health institutions.

They also focus on the six quality priorities of care which entail the availability of medicine in hospital, waiting times, staff attitude, and patient safety, the control of infection in the institution as well as the cleanliness of the facility.