The Portfolio Committee on Health undertook an oversight visit at Tembisa Provincial Tertiary (TPT) Hospital in the Gauteng Province on Sunday,  following the report released recently by the Health Ombudsman, Prof Malegapuru Makgoba, on the care and death of Mr Shonisani Lethole who died at Tembisa Tertiary Hospital.

Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo who is the Chairperson of the committee,  said the committee visited the hospital following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 to check its state of readiness for Covid-19. He said the committee was happy with the hospital’s preparedness for the pandemic at the time.

 The committee noted from its yesterday’s oversight visit at the hospital that Ekurhuleni is a big metro that serves a large population of South Africans, and based on that, Dr Dhlomo said: “We must support the 2012 decision to make the hospital a tertiary hospital. The resources in terms of infrastructure, staffing, equipment that needed to be upgraded in order to meet the new grade were not upgraded and they need to be upgraded as the starting point to resolve problems at the hospital.”

The committee also noted poor record keeping at the hospital and told the hospital management that poor record keeping cannot be defended at any stage. It said clinical record keeping has to be kept properly for right handover and proper management of patients. Furthermore, it said management and supervision of junior healthcare professionals must be strengthened and gaps need to be adequately addressed.

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