Amid the multitude of problems plaguing public hospitals, three KwaZulu-Natal gems have achieved standards of healthcare that are on par with international healthcare facilities.
Port Shepstone Hospital, Grey's Hospital and Lower Umfolozi War Memorial Hospital were the only KwaZulu-Natal hospitals to be recently awarded two-year accreditation certificates by the Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa (Cohsasa).
Of the 232 public hospitals in the country, these three were among the only 12 hospitals accredited, said Cohsasa chief executive, Prof Stuart Whittaker.
Lower Umfolozi War Memorial Hospital scored 22 percent for Prevention and Control of Infections before joining the accreditation programme, but achieved 99 percent after completing it. Similarly, resuscitation services were at 59 percent and subsequently went up to 97 percent.
The hospital's manager, Cebo Myeza, said the facility also had missing medical records, poor customer care from front line staff and inadequate staff training before their accreditation.
"After training staff on Batho Pele principles and improving the quality of service provided, we now have a 'customer is king' approach, which helped us get the accreditation," he said.
Port Shepstone Hospital made dramatic improvements in its obstetric and maternity care - from 69 percent to 98 percent - laundry service - from 45 percent to 92 percent - and health care technology management - from 34 percent to 94 percent.
Grey's Hospital chief executive Dr Ruben Naidu said the 150-year-old hospital tried to reduce the incidence of poor treatment often experienced by patients despite resource constraints.
Whittaker said Cohsasa assessed about 30 different services available at hospitals, from pharmacy services to cleaning, housekeeping and waste management.
"We also look at manage-ment and administration, which includes access to care, continuity of care, how technology is managed and so on."
Of concern to Cohsasa was the poor management of technology, where the equipment is available, but staff are unable to use it or take care of it.
Other worrisome areas are hospital maintenance, infection control and waste management - where it is not correctly stored in the correct containers or bags, said Whittaker.