Health Minister Barbara Hogan paid tribute on Friday to initiatives taken by health workers to overcome the problems they face while caring for patients.
She cited a number of steps taken by health workers to improve patient care and said it was important to acknowledge these, otherwise workers would feel demoralised and demotivated.
In one hospital, staff had increased the number of newborn babies whose HIV status was known by providing on-the-spot counselling and testing in hospital labour wards.
This enabled them to increase the number of babies who received pre-packed preventative medicines in the short time around delivery from 12% to 95%.
A community health care centre was concerned about its Tuberculosis (TB) defaulter rate — this is a group of people who do not stay on the treatment programme and do not arrive for follow-up appointments.
They discovered that it was not clear who was responsible for the patients once they referred them to hospital for treatment.
A local NGO already working in home-based care obtained a list of TB patients and defaulters and visited them at their homes for their follow-up treatment, said Hogan.
The department also believed it had hospital-acquired infections under control, after a spate of deaths mainly in nurseries, although they still had to be vigilant.
Staff were also becoming less afraid of reporting a mistake or near mistake.
Hogan prefaced her comments with: ”Admittedly these achievements are not yet as widespread as we all wish and intend, and we do continue to suffer together with those who experience the opposite of what is reflected here.”
Hogan was addressing a conference in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg, on the formation of a ministerial advisory committee for quality, safety and standards and three sub-committees, which would cover these areas.
The department would also convene an interim committee for quality to build a picture of the current priorities.
On Thursday a Cabinet spokesperson said Hogan had apologised after criticising the government for not letting the Dalai Lama visit.
Hogan replaced former health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang in last year’s Cabinet reshuffle. — Sapa