President Jacob Zuma will visit the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria, one of the best performing public hospitals in the country, to monitor the delivery of healthcare services as part of the Presidential Siyahlola Monitoring Programme.
The hospital, which is named after the late liberation struggle hero and a former medical student at the University of Natal, Mr Steve Bantu Biko, is a tertiary healthcare institution, rendering specialized and highly specialized services to medically referred patients.Due to its remarkable performance and sound management, the Steve Biko Academic Hospital was declared the best well managed public hospital in the country by the Office of Health Standards Compliance which is the watchdog of the standard of health in the country.
The visit by President Zuma is part of the ongoing government monitoring programme that aims to address challenges facing public hospitals and to improve the healthcare system in the country which is one of the government’s key priorities.
During the visit President Zuma will undertake a walkabout at various departments of the hospital to monitor the services provided to the public and to interact with staff and patients to receive first-hand information on challenges facing the hospital for purposes of further improving its services.
The President will further visit the Nuclear Medicine Centre which provides the best evidence-based patient care utilizing the most advanced technological imaging equipment. President Zuma will also visit the Oncology Department, one of the busiest drainage areas for oncology patients in the country. The centre has the largest number of radiation machines that cater for patients from Mpumalanga, Limpopo, North West and Gauteng.
As part of his tour in the hospital, President Zuma will also visit the hospital pharmacy which has an automated medical dispensary, which is the second one in the country and is also the biggest dispenser of a wide range of medicines with the capacity to dispense 120 prescriptions per hour.