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The Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development (DID) has entered a new era when it comes to the maintenance of its health facilities across the five development corridors of the province.

On Thursday, 5 October 2017, DID MEC Jacob Mamabolo handed over the conditional assessments for each hospitals to his counterpart Health MEC, Dr Gwen Ramokgopa. The completion of these conditional assessments for all 33 Gauteng Provincial Government Hospitals marks a great breakthrough in ensuring that these facilities meet the needs of the people of the province and health professional who work in them.

These studies provide the province with unparalleled insight on the health of all equipment and building in a hospital. This means that government now knows areas of concern so that it can better plan properly for the needs of each facility.

The study has also played a big role in the adoption of a new, proactive maintenance strategy which seeks to bring the standard of buildings and equipment to a level that meets the needs of the users of the facilities.

Speaking during the handover of the condition assessments to the Department of health and the respective Chief Executives Officers of all Gauteng hospitals Mamabolo says the strategy titled ‘Closing The Gap” will help DID and the provincial government strike an important balance between delivering new infrastructure and maintaining existing infrastructure.

“Through the conditional assessment which rates equipment and buildings from level 1 (for extremely neglected facilities) to level 5 (for facilities of high standards), we now better placed to plan properly so that we move away from the old tradition of chasing defects,” says Mamabolo.

He added that through the ‘Closing the Gap’ strategy government will ensure that it optimises its limited resources by coordinating maintenance so that every intervention contributes to the overall improvement of each facility.

Guided by the latest health planning standards and practices, DID will work in close coordination with the department of health especially the CEO’s of the facilities on an going basis.

Speaking after receiving the reports Dr Ramokgopa said: “Closing the Gap is not only addressing the maintenance issue, but it is also a cost saving measure. It also empowers our CEO’s to make decisions and act, it essentially makes the CEO accountable to the public.”

Issued by the Department of Infrastructure Development