Western Cape Health Minister Nomafrench Mbombo confirmed all hospitals in the province had resumed normal functioning and have re-escalated their services. This decision is critical for their post-Covid recovery efforts and will allow the health sector to clear surgical backlogs created by the pandemic.
Since the beginning of lockdown all hospitals have had to prioritise their services to accommodate Covid-19 patients. It was a step that was extremely necessary to ensure lives were saved without having facilities overwhelmed by the various waves of infections during the pandemic.
However, the direct consequence of de-escalating non-critical medical services, particularly surgeries that were not urgent, resulted in a backlog in the number of operations needing to take place. This was not only the case in the Western Cape but at hospitals across South Africa.
The province used a proxy marker of surgeries lasting longer than 30 minutes to determine its level of operations. For example, in 2019 the total number of operations stood at 105 882 operations taking longer than half an hour. In 2020, this number decreased by 19% and dropped even further to 22% last year.
MPP Wendy Kaizer-Philander says: “The DA in the Western Cape welcomes the urgency with which the provincial Health Department has sought to tackle the surgical backlog.
“A total of R20 million has been reallocated towards eradicating the backlog and a further R114 million is being spent on procuring additional services to assist with capacity. So residents will be able to receive the quality health care they deserve after a devastating pandemic.
