1. HON. MEC, thank you for the intervention you’re mentioned.

2.At the outset, the MF supports the HON. Dr. Dhlomo as the political head for his technical and interpersonal skills displayed, however in terms of operational, day to day running of the departments always pointed to weak management skills of officials in most key areas eg. skewed human resources, infrastructure especially the equipment section and off course behavioural issues of healthcare providers both clinical and administrative.

3.HON. MEC, it’s time we understand via an executive statement the role of unions in health and the rationalisation initiative of the department.

4.HON. Members, with rising litigation against the department it is time that when the NHI becomes a reality, all our citizens will have better and more equipment and health services, however even for the NHI to succeed, the decisions we make now, when the state of finances are so weak, will determine whether patient safety advocates who argue that the high costs of adverse events create economic incentives for hospitals to invest in safety improvement, are actually right.

5.The Minority Front, HON. MEC agrees with Mello et al (2007), that the current medical liability system is more adversarial, slower and less predictable than a health court system.

6.So, HON. MEC Dhlomo, my plea to you and your officials is to read this US research, and pursue for legal reform, notwithstanding that this alone cannot establish the business case for safety but can be an integral part of the solutions.

7.HON. MECs, the fact that healthcare professionals are taking to the streets and our HON. MEC is rolling his sleeves and working as a healthcare professional, is proof enough that, all healthcare providers have been profoundly affected because they have a conscience to promote life, but the problem in our public health sector also lies in the fact that, there is a lack of information on the extent of medical malpractice, which the media provides general ideas of but we need to get down to root causes and I believe that a bigger part to latent failures in the health system, is the skilled human resource factor.

8.HON. MEC, please resolve the human resource organogram, more training, less administrators, more information technology to release bottlenecks.

9.Thank You

Shameen Thakur- Rajbansi

Minority Front  MPL KZN Legislature