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The Gauteng Health Department is prioritising improving the waiting periods for patients who are in need of surgery.

The department has implemented interventions to reduce the backlog such as monitoring of theatre times at regional, central and tertiary hospitals, appropriate use of hospital beds especially ICU beds, better coordination of cross boarder migration of patients from neighbouring provinces and countries, recapitalisation of medical equipment in public health facilities, partnering with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to bring services, such as cataract surgeries, closer to the people as well as investing in modern queue management systems.

Contrary to what has been suggested private healthcare is not needed to reduce backlogs. Private care is more expensive and it drains medical professionals from the public system. Citizens want a strengthened public health care system that will reduce backlogs.

“Surgery is at the end of the spectrum of the classic curative medical model. However, no matter how successful prevention strategies are, surgical conditions will always account for a significant portion of a population’s disease burden, particularly where the incidence of trauma and obstetrical complications is high, and where there is a huge backlog of untreated surgical diseases,” says Ndoda Biyela Acting Head of Department.

The department is also in the process of reviewing the delivery of quality health care in a manner that achieves success by establishing environments of empowerment, constant improvement, support, and accountability through a cluster model.

This process is aimed at offering dedicated surgery time, standardising practices and investing in new equipment, so that doctors are able to see more patients and complete more procedures than they normally would.