Gauteng health to 'rebuild its reputation'
The Gauteng Health Department will take a step back and reassess the deinstitutionalisation of mental healthcare in the province.
The newly appointed Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa briefed the media on her department's progress with the implementing the Health Ombuds' recommendations following the Life Esidimeni tragedy, in which more than a 100 mental healthcare patients died.
Ramakgopa says she can't understand how the deinstitutionalisation programme, where psychiatric hospitals are replaced by community mental health services, could result in such a tragedy for some of South Africa's most vulnerable.
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She adds that they are committed in restoring South Africans' faith in the public health care system.
"Extraordinary measures are being taken to rebuild the reputation of the whole Gauteng department of health as a humane, caring, patient centred and competent public service," she says.