Date: 15/11/2003
Source: Department of Health
Title: Tshabalala-Msimang: Kimberley Hospital CEO awards for excellence
ADDRESS BY MINISTER OF HEALTH, DR MANTO TSHABALALA-MSIMANG, AT KIMBERLEY HOSPITAL CEO AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE, Kimberley, 15 November 2003
Programme Director
Premier Dipico
MEC for Health
Mr Madyo, Head of Health
Dignitaries and guests
And - most importantly - the top performers at Kimberley Hospital whom we honour tonight
Thank you for inviting me to participate in the Kimberley Hospital Complex's CEO Awards for outstanding service. I am grateful to be here, grateful to receive such a powerful and pleasant reminder about the real meaning of our work in the public health sector, which is to offer quality care to the people of this country.
I would like first of all to pay tribute to the management of Kimberley Hospital Complex.
When it comes to motivating people through recognition you have really achieved the ultimate: Tonight's winners know that they have a vote of confidence from their patients, they have the respect of their peers and the Premier of the province has taken note of their efforts. Appreciation does not get much better than that! The status that you have sought and achieved for these awards tells your personnel that you truly have confidence in them and value their commitment.
Just a week ago, I stood in front of the microphone at the national Awards for Excellence in Health Care in Johannesburg. In organising this ceremony, the national Department of Health joined hands with other health care organisations - the Democratic Nursing Organisation, the Hospital Association of South Africa, the South African Medical Association and the Health Professions Council. And together we paid tribute to those who had achieved outstanding service in various fields of health care.
I was impressed that each organisation had been prepared to set aside its individual ceremony in order to create something new, something that symbolised unity and proclaimed that we are on the road to achieving a unified health care system spanning the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.
This joint ceremony worked only because the participating organisations had done their homework. The nomination of candidates for national awards must be a bottom up process, with a strong base. In the public sector, we need to have effective regional and provincial processes for identifying excellent performance.
Furthermore, awards cease to have a motivational value if only a very few people stand a chance of winning. For awards to have an impact on staff morale and to strengthen a culture of caring, we need to spread the search for quality into every work place. And we need to recognise all categories of health workers - from the most experienced medical specialist to the newest cleaner.
Kimberley Hospital is a model of this approach. And it is to the credit of all concerned - managers, personnel, labour organisations and service users.
I believe that the leadership of this province also deserves recognition for the strong emphasis that they have placed on respectful service to our people - on the Batho Pele ethos. Premier Dipico, as you reach the limits of your term of office, I know you will be able to look back on some very solid evidence of your success as the first Premier of this province. I certainly believe that you will regard the changes at Kimberley Hospital as one of these achievements.
Next week MEC Peters will, I hope, be joining me in Cape Town for the National Council of Provinces debate on the National Health Bill. The Bill deals with a wide range of matters and truly lays a foundation in law for a strong, unified national health system.
It is no accident that a section early in the Bill - Chapter 2 - deals with the rights and responsibilities of health care users and providers. This government feels so strongly about the ethical treatment of health care users that we have written certain patients' rights into law. The provisions of the Bill reinforce the ethical content of the professional oaths you have sworn and the Patients' Charter that we adopted four years ago.
The advantage of recognising these rights in the law is that there can be no doubt about the seriousness with which we view these matters. There can also be no doubt that these rights are applicable throughout the country. And the public will have a clear understanding of our minimum standards of practice.
For health workers who have already embraced the Batho Pele principles and the Patients' Rights Charter, Chapter 2 of the National Health Bill holds no surprises or challenges.
As government we have also been keen to use the National Health Bill to protect health workers from abuse. It is of great concern that many of health professionals are subject to abusive language, threats and even physical assault in the course of their work. The Bill makes it quite clear that health workers can take certain actions to protect themselves. Later this month, we hope to further highlight the dangers and risks that health workers are subject to during the course of their work by putting the subject on the agenda of 16 Days of Activism against Violence perpetrated on Women and Children.
Quality of care has its roots in the attitudes we hold to those who seek our help. Good care starts with respect, good communication and an understanding of the individuality of our patients. But it doesn't end there.
The good practitioner also needs to have sound knowledge of his or her chosen field and a high level of practical skill. I am sure that all our award winners tonight not only meet these standards -- but also have something extra. I am sure that we will be applauding winners who have leadership ability, who display more than the expected dedication to service, and who work especially effectively with others.
I am reminded again of last week's national awards held in Johannesburg. The first group of health workers that we paid tribute to consisted of 21 nurses who made the enormous commitment to leave South Africa clandestinely in 1962 and go and serve the newly liberated nation of Tanganyika. As one of the group said in a poem, they saw themselves as "soldiers armed with syringes and bandages" fighting for the survival of this young state and for the triumph of free Africa over colonialism.
These young nurses, who were recruited by the African National Congress, never touched their home soil again until 30 years later. They served in many parts of Africa and in countries of Europe and the Middle East and many had rewarding careers. But they really did not know what lay in wait when they answered the call to assist the people of Tanzania, who had been left critically short of skilled human resources when the colonial powers gave way.
I believe that everyone in the auditorium was moved at the sight of these elderly professionals at last getting the recognition they had hungered for most - the praise of their fellow South African professionals.
Over the last ten years, many of you have been meeting challenges of transformation. In some ways these are similar to the difficulties faced by Tanzania in 1962 - and in other ways they are profoundly different. But it has been no easy task to build a democratic nation on the ruins of apartheid and to develop a public service fit to assist all our people.
As we begin to celebrate the first ten years of freedom, we have to commit ourselves to sustaining our efforts to improve health care. We still have a considerable distance to go to achieve the health system that our people deserve. But we have scored notable successes along the way - and we should celebrate these and draw strength from good performance.
I was interested to read, in the awards booklet, the comments of earlier winners here at Kimberley Hospital. Almost everyone mentioned that the award had spurred them on to try harder or it had made their colleagues believe that they could be winners too. It is this kind of spirit that can carry us through the transformation of our society to a substantially better life for all.
The Green Movement in the 1970s used the slogan: "Think globally, act locally". These few words draw attention to the fact that the actions that we take in our daily working lives really count. They count a lot for the majority of South Africans who have nowhere else to turn for assistance but to state-run services. Never, I urge you, never underestimate the power you have over ordinary people - the power to do good and the power to do harm.
Also, be aware that your actions have a wider significance. Each of you is important in the larger scheme of things, in helping our brave new nation to fulfil its promise - to become a society where people can live in reasonable comfort, with their basic needs satisfied, at peace with each other and with dreams in their hearts.
I thank you.
Source: Department of Health (http://www.doh.gov.za)
Source: Department of Health
Title: Tshabalala-Msimang: Kimberley Hospital CEO awards for excellence
ADDRESS BY MINISTER OF HEALTH, DR MANTO TSHABALALA-MSIMANG, AT KIMBERLEY HOSPITAL CEO AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE, Kimberley, 15 November 2003
Programme Director
Premier Dipico
MEC for Health
Mr Madyo, Head of Health
Dignitaries and guests
And - most importantly - the top performers at Kimberley Hospital whom we honour tonight
Thank you for inviting me to participate in the Kimberley Hospital Complex's CEO Awards for outstanding service. I am grateful to be here, grateful to receive such a powerful and pleasant reminder about the real meaning of our work in the public health sector, which is to offer quality care to the people of this country.
I would like first of all to pay tribute to the management of Kimberley Hospital Complex.
When it comes to motivating people through recognition you have really achieved the ultimate: Tonight's winners know that they have a vote of confidence from their patients, they have the respect of their peers and the Premier of the province has taken note of their efforts. Appreciation does not get much better than that! The status that you have sought and achieved for these awards tells your personnel that you truly have confidence in them and value their commitment.
Just a week ago, I stood in front of the microphone at the national Awards for Excellence in Health Care in Johannesburg. In organising this ceremony, the national Department of Health joined hands with other health care organisations - the Democratic Nursing Organisation, the Hospital Association of South Africa, the South African Medical Association and the Health Professions Council. And together we paid tribute to those who had achieved outstanding service in various fields of health care.
I was impressed that each organisation had been prepared to set aside its individual ceremony in order to create something new, something that symbolised unity and proclaimed that we are on the road to achieving a unified health care system spanning the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.
This joint ceremony worked only because the participating organisations had done their homework. The nomination of candidates for national awards must be a bottom up process, with a strong base. In the public sector, we need to have effective regional and provincial processes for identifying excellent performance.
Furthermore, awards cease to have a motivational value if only a very few people stand a chance of winning. For awards to have an impact on staff morale and to strengthen a culture of caring, we need to spread the search for quality into every work place. And we need to recognise all categories of health workers - from the most experienced medical specialist to the newest cleaner.
Kimberley Hospital is a model of this approach. And it is to the credit of all concerned - managers, personnel, labour organisations and service users.
I believe that the leadership of this province also deserves recognition for the strong emphasis that they have placed on respectful service to our people - on the Batho Pele ethos. Premier Dipico, as you reach the limits of your term of office, I know you will be able to look back on some very solid evidence of your success as the first Premier of this province. I certainly believe that you will regard the changes at Kimberley Hospital as one of these achievements.
Next week MEC Peters will, I hope, be joining me in Cape Town for the National Council of Provinces debate on the National Health Bill. The Bill deals with a wide range of matters and truly lays a foundation in law for a strong, unified national health system.
It is no accident that a section early in the Bill - Chapter 2 - deals with the rights and responsibilities of health care users and providers. This government feels so strongly about the ethical treatment of health care users that we have written certain patients' rights into law. The provisions of the Bill reinforce the ethical content of the professional oaths you have sworn and the Patients' Charter that we adopted four years ago.
The advantage of recognising these rights in the law is that there can be no doubt about the seriousness with which we view these matters. There can also be no doubt that these rights are applicable throughout the country. And the public will have a clear understanding of our minimum standards of practice.
For health workers who have already embraced the Batho Pele principles and the Patients' Rights Charter, Chapter 2 of the National Health Bill holds no surprises or challenges.
As government we have also been keen to use the National Health Bill to protect health workers from abuse. It is of great concern that many of health professionals are subject to abusive language, threats and even physical assault in the course of their work. The Bill makes it quite clear that health workers can take certain actions to protect themselves. Later this month, we hope to further highlight the dangers and risks that health workers are subject to during the course of their work by putting the subject on the agenda of 16 Days of Activism against Violence perpetrated on Women and Children.
Quality of care has its roots in the attitudes we hold to those who seek our help. Good care starts with respect, good communication and an understanding of the individuality of our patients. But it doesn't end there.
The good practitioner also needs to have sound knowledge of his or her chosen field and a high level of practical skill. I am sure that all our award winners tonight not only meet these standards -- but also have something extra. I am sure that we will be applauding winners who have leadership ability, who display more than the expected dedication to service, and who work especially effectively with others.
I am reminded again of last week's national awards held in Johannesburg. The first group of health workers that we paid tribute to consisted of 21 nurses who made the enormous commitment to leave South Africa clandestinely in 1962 and go and serve the newly liberated nation of Tanganyika. As one of the group said in a poem, they saw themselves as "soldiers armed with syringes and bandages" fighting for the survival of this young state and for the triumph of free Africa over colonialism.
These young nurses, who were recruited by the African National Congress, never touched their home soil again until 30 years later. They served in many parts of Africa and in countries of Europe and the Middle East and many had rewarding careers. But they really did not know what lay in wait when they answered the call to assist the people of Tanzania, who had been left critically short of skilled human resources when the colonial powers gave way.
I believe that everyone in the auditorium was moved at the sight of these elderly professionals at last getting the recognition they had hungered for most - the praise of their fellow South African professionals.
Over the last ten years, many of you have been meeting challenges of transformation. In some ways these are similar to the difficulties faced by Tanzania in 1962 - and in other ways they are profoundly different. But it has been no easy task to build a democratic nation on the ruins of apartheid and to develop a public service fit to assist all our people.
As we begin to celebrate the first ten years of freedom, we have to commit ourselves to sustaining our efforts to improve health care. We still have a considerable distance to go to achieve the health system that our people deserve. But we have scored notable successes along the way - and we should celebrate these and draw strength from good performance.
I was interested to read, in the awards booklet, the comments of earlier winners here at Kimberley Hospital. Almost everyone mentioned that the award had spurred them on to try harder or it had made their colleagues believe that they could be winners too. It is this kind of spirit that can carry us through the transformation of our society to a substantially better life for all.
The Green Movement in the 1970s used the slogan: "Think globally, act locally". These few words draw attention to the fact that the actions that we take in our daily working lives really count. They count a lot for the majority of South Africans who have nowhere else to turn for assistance but to state-run services. Never, I urge you, never underestimate the power you have over ordinary people - the power to do good and the power to do harm.
Also, be aware that your actions have a wider significance. Each of you is important in the larger scheme of things, in helping our brave new nation to fulfil its promise - to become a society where people can live in reasonable comfort, with their basic needs satisfied, at peace with each other and with dreams in their hearts.
I thank you.
Source: Department of Health (http://www.doh.gov.za)
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