The Tintswalo Hospital CEO Service Excellence Awards were held on Friday at the Acorns to Oaks High School just outside of Hoedspruit.
The awards ceremony was presented by Tshemba Foundation, an organisation that offers a voluntourism program which aims to place volunteer medical professionals in rural healthcare centres, predominantly at Tintswalo Hospital.
Tintswalo is a Department of Health district hospital in Acornhoek which serves around 300 000 people, the majority of whom live in poverty. Many of the 10 000 patients visiting the hospital each month present with life threatening diseases such as malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and diabetes and hypertension in epidemic proportions.
Attendees of the function included hospital staff, traditional leaders, members of the hospital board, faith-based organisations, healthcare staff in the Ehlanzeni district, ward councillors, members of the local municipality and local SAPS members.
The awards ceremony was the brainchild of the current hospital CEO, Merriam Moyimane. Moyimane has been working at the hospital since 2006, where she spent her first 11 years as the matron before being promoted to Acting CEO last year before being officially made the CEO in May of this year.
Moyimane told the HOEDSPRUIT HERALD, “This is the first awards ceremony in more than ten years, we have more than 500 staff and I wanted to find a way to motivate them and also to honour and appreciate the work that they do.”
Read: Tshemba, A new era of medical volunteering
She further advised that the awards were given out for individual and team performance over the last twelve months.
Chief Mnisi, a local senior traditional leader, delivered the word of welcome and acknowledged the value of commitment, the value of the collective and the value of time, “The most important work you can do is to change lives. Get out of your comfort zone, so that you do not forget what you are trying to achieve.”
Certainly the nurses, doctors and hospital staff recognised during the awards ceremony have stepped outside of their comfort zones in order to deliver quality services to the patients of Tintswalo.
Moyimane delivered the purpose of the event in a speech that stated, “The staff honoured here have endured working under difficult and challenging conditions… We don’t often have time to appreciate you [the staff]… but today, today is YOUR day.”
Bronze service awards were handed out to a nurse, a cleaner and a waste manager of the hospital. Nine silver awards were handed out to the likes of nurses, cleaners, accounting staff, doctors and a nurse educator and a further 24 gold awards were also given out to a number of key role players in the hospital’s staff complement.
Additionally, a number of team awards were also shared.
Nurse educator Linneth Baloyi was given the overall special achievement award for her services. Moyimane told the HERALD, “She has lived up to the nurses’ pledge of service. She is a role model, an inspiration and always supports the patients.”
Special awards were also given out to the Allied Health team under the category of Best Service Delivery and to The Nursing School under the Most Innovative Team category.
Further to this, Themba Trust Manzini, the hospital’s Clinical Psychologist was awarded the Healthcare Professionals Award by the Health Excellence Award Institute as the best psychologist.
Going forwards, Moyimane has high hopes and big dreams for Tintswalo, “We used to be one of the best and known internationally. I wish to see Tintswalo at the top again and for it to be the hospital of choice. I wish for Tintswalo to be trusted by the community and to be the hospital that leads.”
The function was interluded with a traditional dance from primary school learners and finished off with a lovely luncheon.
