Health ombudsman on way

Patients with complaints will soon be able to knock on the door of a health ombudsman to deal with poor service.

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said after a cabinet meeting in Cape Town yesterday that the proposed office of health standards compliance would investigate the extent to which both state and private hospitals complied with health standards before the national health insurance (NHI) scheme was introduced in 2012.

Motsoaledi said that a health ombudsman would advise him on the revision of standards for quality and safety for the health system.

The office of the health ombudsman would include an inspectorate that would make regular, unannounced checks on conditions at private and public hospitals, and oversee the accreditation of such facilities.

"No health facility in this country will be under the national health insurance scheme unless it gets accreditation from this office of standards compliance," he said.

"In other words . if you are not accredited by the office, no NHI for that facility," said Motsoaledi.

Anyone with a complaint, such as being ignored for hours at a hospital, queuing for a long time or encountering "wrong" staff attitudes could go to the office of the ombudsman, said Motsoaledi.

But Motsoaledi could not explain what powers of sanction the ombudsman would have. He said the issue would be dealt with during the processing of the National Health Amendment Bill, which makes provision for the establishment of an office for health-standards compliance.

Turning to the government's campaign against the spread of HIV and Aids, Motsoaledi said the latest statistics showed that at least 4.9million people responded to the government's call last year for people to undergo voluntary counselling and testing, but it was not clear how many of those had taken an HIV test.

"The number of people who present themselves for counselling is not the same as those who have been tested," he said.

"We do counsel a lot of people, and some don't get tested after counselling. Either they get afraid and disappear, or it might be that they queue for too long at times."

He said the government's target of testing 15million people this year had not been achieved because the campaign "stopped altogether during the World Cup" and was further disrupted by the public sector strike in July.