In a bid to drastically improve the quality of health care in Gauteng, provincial authorities have embarked on a massive recruitment and training programme as well as a smile campaign.
MEC Nomantu Nkomo Ralehoko launched the Serve with a Smile campaign in Randburg, Johannesburg on Friday where she pleaded with hundreds of nurses, admin and other support staff to return the province to “its glory days”.
The provincial health department is also hoping the smile campaign will also result in reduced patient complaints which the MEC says are already on a decline.
“And in those instances where we had a high number of complaints those days complaints have been reduced. It is time for us now to address the challenges head and reclaim our position as leaders in the health care provision in the public sector. And we have a responsibility to restore our health system and to its former glory and reaffirm our commitment to provide quality services to our citizens,” said Nkomo-Ralehoko.
“You’ve got to have a passionate personality for you to really be a nurse. It’s very tough I must say, it’s not easy but you just have to have,you know when you’re driven and you want to enjoy what you doing you really do so with a smile because there’s so many challenges in the world world at home everything but when you get there you know you don’t judge the patient, you just there to serve with a smile because it makes such a difference to a patient when they’re served by the someone who’s smiling,” said Thato Serame who served as a nurse for 9 years and is now teaching at Gauteng College of Nursing, Chris Hani Baragwanath Campus.
Serame who was working on a stall recruiting prospective students says nurses have to be in a sound mental condition so they’re positive around patients no matter their personal or work circumstances.
“You’ve got to leave all that at home and focus on the patients,” she said.
The MEC expressed hope that the department could rise above workplace challenges and deliver world class services.
“May this campaign be a friendly reminder that our work is not just a profession. It is a calling, a calling to serve, a calling to heal and a calling to make have a positive effect on the lives of others,” added Nkomo-Ralehoko.
Pointing out that her department will be appointing more staff and improving the quality of the existing EPWP positions through re-skilling as part of the provincial government’s ” Nasi Spane” jobs programme.