Recently appointed new Eastern Cape Health MEC Pemmy Majodina pledged in Bisho on Tuesday to accelerate service delivery.

Majodina, aged 39, met on Tuesday with the entire departmental staff, including top management, for the first time, said department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo.

At the meeting she announced a short-term intervention aimed at improving service delivery over the next seven months.

The health challenge

The main areas where delivery needed to be speeded up were in solving the shortage of doctors and nurses and improving treatment of TB, especially XDR TB, and HIV, she said.

"The MEC announced that she will appoint technical support teams that will work with CEOs in various hospitals to unblock critical challenges," said Kupelo.

Majodina said she wanted to speed up procurement processes so hospitals did not run out of essential equipment.

She also announced she would embark on a roadshow over the next week.

On Thursday she would meet with doctors and nurses in East London and in Umtata.

Next week Tuesday she would visit Port Elizabeth to get clinicians' input and listen to their concerns.

On the same day she would hold an extraordinary meeting with top management to reprioritise the department's main issues.

The meeting would also look at issues of financial management.

Majodina said she wanted to ensure a clean audit report, doing away with under-expenditure. She also wanted to fight skills shortages and improve infrastructure.

On Tuesday, Majodina made a special plea to the department's employees to work tirelessly as a team to accelerate service delivery.

She said she would continue to consult with all relevant stakeholders including unions.

Sapa