Health
With respect to the Khayelitsha District Hospital and the area as a whole:
(a) What has the exponential population growth in the area been over the past five financial years, (b) how has the population growth affected the Hospital’s healthcare services and (c) what have been the interventions from her Department to address the challenges in this regard?
[a] Population totals
|
Subdistrict |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
|
Khayelitsha |
428 598 |
433 509 |
438 170 |
442 685 |
447 112 |
451 633 |
|
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|
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[b] Khayelitsha District Hospital mainly sees patients from Khayelitsha, Mfuleni and neighbouring areas. In 2016, a decision to alleviate pressure in Eerste River Hospital was made and this Hospital remains under severe pressure due the continued increase in patient intake. As part of this process some of the Mfuleni patients were moved from Eerste River Hospital to Khayelitsha District Hospital.
Khayelitsha District Hospital was originally designed as a 300 bed hospital but due to population growth, additional space had to be created to accommodate more patients. The hospital remains under severe pressure due the continued increase in patient intake, including mental health patients. The Covid-19 pandemic worsened socio-economic factors by impacting negatively on mental health. Our hospital is under a lot of pressure due to mental health services amongst other pressures such as communicable and non-communicable diseases, violence, injuries, women and children’s health. There is a high demand of services with limited resources resulting in more pressure on health care services. Alcohol and substance abuse also contribute to an increase in the number of patients requiring mental health services. The mental health pressure is not unique to Khayelitsha Hospital and is a known challenge for all hospitals across the province and country.
[c] As a health department we have done in depth analysis and evaluation of the challenges and efficiencies to be gained at KDH. The end result will be to look at the current expenditure in the area of agency staff expenditure and overtime payment and recommend improvements in those areas linked to employment of permanent staff to ease clinical pressure points at KDH. Currently the health system is experiencing mental health pressures at all levels and the department is putting plans in place to relieve pressures at district hospital level by strengthening specialised referral systems and community and PHC mental health services. This would include collaboration with other partners delivering mental health services including social development. All of these processes were communicated to the members of the committee when they visited the hospital. These improvement plans are ongoing.
