Durban - When the Govender family of Yellowwood Park called an ambulance for their ill father on Monday they did not know that the provincial health head would be the one responding to their emergency.
KwaZulu-Natal Health Department head, Dr Sifiso Mtshali, donned paramedic gear and joined Nduduzo Maluleka and Xolani Msane on their shift on Monday night. Also in the ambulance was district manager Nikiwe Zungu.
Together, they saw to Perumal Govender’s medical emergency and transported him to hospital.
The 79-year-old’s daughter-in-law Saloshni Govender told the Daily News they were pleasantly surprised to see a person in such a “big position” come to their aid.
“We got excellent service. To call the paramedics and get a doctor, the head of the department, what luck,” said Saloshni Govender.
Mtshali took over from his predecessor, Dr Sibongile Zungu, a year ago. Since then, he has been paying surprise incognito visits to public health facilities.
“My aim is to know each and every aspect of operation within the department. I visit clinics and hospitals to test the service and I’ve learnt a lot. For me to come up with an effective strategy to improve services, I need to know the issues, and there is no better way to understand something than being on the ground,” he said.
Only a few hours into his shift at the Wentworth ambulance base, Mtshali said he had already identified difficulties which would otherwise have been “sanitised” had they been brought to his desk through management structures.
He said working as a paramedic had been an eye-opening experience where he had discovered issues such as delayed response times because of non-critical patient transfers, no GPS in ambulances which meant paramedics lost time trying to find their way to patients.
“All in all, our paramedic colleagues are doing their jobs and I have been able to get some honesty about their issues from them tonight,” Mtshali said.
The surprise visits also meant health care workers continued with “business as usual”, allowing Mtshali to get a real sense of their attitudes towards their work.
“I told them at Wentworth, tomorrow (Wednesday) I will be the HOD, Dr Mtshali; tonight I am Sifiso, they must treat me the same. Most of them didn’t even know I was the HOD, they just went about their work as they normally do, so I was able to identify some loopholes.”
He said he believed the exercise would improve previously strained relations between paramedics and the department. “The team here at Wentworth will tell others they have a system which cares about them and shares their frustrations. Relations are better, most were because of misunderstanding but we have found each other,” said Mtshali.
The former chief executive of Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital said the top job had its challenges, but these were not unsurmountable.
He believed one of the key ways to improving health care was to communicate with and consider patients as clients.
“It is our responsibility to educate them and help them understand what is possible and what is impossible. Some people may not understand why they can’t go directly to Inkosi Albert (hospital) for example. We need to increase knowledge and understanding of the health system and why things happen a certain way.”
Another challenge was coming into a department whose budget had been cut.
“It falls upon us as managers to work efficiently. I’m not going to lie, there are inefficiencies - issues of absenteeism, wastage - and we are working to identify and deal with these, given the budget constraints.”
Described as a strategist, leader and team player on the department’s website, Mtshali said he always got excited when he treated patients and tried to do it often to “keep abreast of the profession”.
Under his leadership, the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital had received many accolades and Mtshali said he believed the advantage of his time at this state of the art facility, had taught him that high standards were possible in public health facilities.
“A hospital can be old, but if it is clean and has staff who are responsive to society’s problems, then people will be fine.”
As a medical doctor, working night shift is not new to Mtshali and his family understands he has to be out seeing to the health needs of the people of KwaZulu-Natal whether from the top as the head of department or masquerading as a patient.
Daily News