The Western Cape’s Health Minister, Nomafrench Mbombo, confirmed that all hospitals in the province have resumed normal functioning and have re-escalated their services.
According to Mbombo, the decision is critical towards the province’s post-COVID recovery efforts that will allow the healthcare sector to clear the surgical backlog created by the pandemic.
Since the beginning of lockdown, all hospitals had to reprioritise their services to accommodate COVID-19 patients. It was also a step that was extremely necessary to ensure that lives were saved without having facilities overwhelmed by the various waves of infections during the pandemic.
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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.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) spokesperson for health in the Western Cape, Wendy Kaizer-Philander further indicated that they welcome the urgency with which the provincial Health Department has sought to tackle the surgical backlog.
Kaizer-Philander said, 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.
“As such, residents will be able to receive the quality healthcare they deserve after a devastating pandemic.
“With new Covid-19 cases being less than 700 per day, it is clear how the vaccination drive has been effective in reducing the pressure on our hospitals. The Covid-19 vaccines are the only solution to allow us to further make progress in building back better, “Kaizer-Philander said.
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