Public Servants Collaborate to Address Challenges at Bronkhorspruit District Hospital During Integrated Public Service Month Site Visit

Senior public servants from national and provincial departments descended on the premises of the Bronkhorspruit District Hospital, about 50 kilometres from the City of Tshwane, as part of the ongoing Integrated Public Service Month (IPSM).
“In line with the theme of this year’s IPSM, which is ‘A Government That Works for You,’ we have identified some pressure points that we could collectively resolve,” said Ms. Mamello Mohamed, the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) IPSM Project Leader, outlining the purpose of the announced visit on the morning of 19 September 2024.
Leading the meeting with the senior management of the hospital was the DPSA Deputy Director-General (DDG) responsible for Service Delivery Access, Mr. Willie Vukela. He was joined by senior management from the DPSA, the Department of Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation (DPME), the Gauteng Department of Health, the Gauteng Department of eGovernment, and the Gauteng Office of the Premier.
The leadership and senior management of the Bronkhorspruit District Hospital were led by the facility’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ms Phumzile Mathibela, who provided a comprehensive report on the hospital’s operations.
In her report, the CEO addressed the findings of an assessment by the DPME regarding the hospital’s state of readiness in the context of the National Health Insurance System (NHIS) and the pre-assessment recently conducted by a team from the DPSA ahead of the IPSM-announced service delivery visit.
The 4.9 hectares on which the Bronkhorspruit District Hospital is located was previously a private hospital that provided limited services to residents of the catchment area who had no medical aid coverage, as part of a public-private partnership with the provincial health department, according to CEO Ms. Mathibela.
The health facility has a staff complement of about 132 permanent and part-time employees, and a bed capacity of 80 beds, excluding the 150 beds in the ABT center. As a Level 1 hospital in the Tshwane Eastern Region, the Bronkhorspruit District Hospital offers 24-hour health services to 256,000 people residing in regions 5 and 7 of the City of Tshwane.
Both the DPSA and the DPME, who had previously assessed the facility, acknowledged that some progress had been made in addressing certain challenges but conceded that more still needed to be done.
The progress made by the hospital was visible during the walkabout of the facility, which was described as orderly and neat.
“As people, we are often quick to criticize and tend to focus on the negatives. However, I am honestly amazed by how the hospital’s team has been able to achieve so much with so little,” commented DDG Vukela after the walkabout.

DDG Vukela committed the DPSA, along with the stakeholder departments in attendance, especially the Provincial Department of Health, to activating an institutional service delivery plan. This plan would assist the Bronkhorspruit District Hospital in addressing some of its management challenges.
The DDG added that part of the way forward includes reporting back to the Minister for the Public Service and Administration, Inkosi Mzamo Buthelezi, who would engage with his peers in Cabinet to resolve the structural and policy challenges that the hospital confronts.