Tshwane hospital sets service delivery standard

There were oooohs, aaahs and gurgles aplenty at Tshwane District Hospital yesterday as Gauteng Premier David Makhura and health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa tried their hands at rocking babies in celebration of the 19 new arrivals over the Mother’s Day weekend.

Makhura and Ramokgopa showered the new mothers, as well as those waiting to give birth, with gifts to celebrate Mother’s Day. Zelda Byleveldt from Bronkhorstspruit, east of Pretoria, delivered her fourth child, Christo, on Friday night.

She was very pleased with the service she received at the hospital. Christo’s father, JC Janse van Rensburg, said the staff were friendly and very helpful.

Thuli Sebothoma, 26, from Mpumalanga, said she was ecstatic to be a new mother of a son. Baby Tshiamo was born at 8pm on Friday. Ramokgopa said the hospital was the best in Gauteng and had received several awards over the years.

The CEO, Dr Naing Soe, was the best manager in the public health facility and he has really done a great job, Makhura said. “This is also one of the cleanest hospitals.

“We hope the whole public service in Gauteng will be inspired and say [they] want to be like Tshwane District Hospital.”

There were mothers from other South African provinces and Sub-Saharan Africa who said they came to this hospital because of its good name. However, Makhura told Ramokgopa he feared that when a facility was functioning like this one, it could become overburdened if other hospitals didn’t function up to standard.

Ramokgopa added: “We still have many challenges within the public health system, especially in this province, and some of our facilities’ systems are receiving substandard services.

It is a matter we are addressing, both myself, the managers of the public services and the MEC for health in the province.” Ramokgopa said this was not the first initiative to bring health services up to standard. “Currently for clinics, Gauteng is ahead of all provinces in terms of clinics that comply to the ideal clinic standards.