A bill to establish an independent office to enforce standards in public hospitals would go to Parliament before the end of the year, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said on Wednesday.

"The quality of care in our hospitals is extremely worrying," he said at a graduation ceremony at the University of Cape Town. "

"Every day we hear sad stories of people not being well taken care of in our hospitals."

The proposed office of standards compliance would ensure hospitals became places "where people find love and compassion", he said.

Although he said that the bill would be tabled by his department, the Constitution lays down that only Ministers or Members of Parliament (MPs) may introduce draft legislation.

His announcement follows a string of incidents in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape in which infants died at hospitals allegedly owing to poor infection control and overcrowding.

Motsoaledi expressed his concern with the "curative nature" of the healthcare system describing it as "hugely expensive and unsustainable".

More emphasis needed to be put on primary health care as part of reducing the huge burden of disease the country faced, he said.

"As a country we just have to go back to the basics of primary healthcare. We have to prevent diseases even before they occur. We have to act now."

South Africa had a huge maternal and infant mortality rate, complicated further by HIV and Aids, he said.