Health
(1)Whether his department is aware of the food shortage among patients at the Nelspoort Hospital during the recent two months; if so, what are the relevant details;
(2) (a) what is the food budget in relation to the total budget of the hospital and (b) what action will be taken by the Minister to ensure the improvement of the adminstrative procedures at Nelspoort Hospital, like purchases and payment of service providers?
1.The dietician from Beaufort West did an audit of the food services at Nelspoort according to the Western Cape Food Service Policy to determine gaps and put action plans in place to address the gaps. Scores for previous audits done at Nelspoort are:
- Score 75%
- Score 69%
- Score 70%
- All aspects of administrative duties regarding ordering, receiving, storing and issuing of stock were reviewed, updated where needed and training of staff done. Nursing staff were included in the training. Follow up training is scheduled for staff that was unable to attend the first round of training. Staff members were designated to manage receiving and issuing of stock.
- Food service staff will undertake weekly visits to wards to monitor correct dishing up of food, portion control and correct temperature of food to patients.
- Follow up visits of the Beaufort West food services supervisor is planned to ensure on-going support for administrative duties.
- [a] Budget allocation for food services:
Total Budget Allocation Nelspoort Hospital = R14 729 000.00
Budget Allocation for Groceries [Food] = R 894 000.00
The food cost per inpatient day is on average R30, 71 per day. This is more than the average for other hospitals in Eden and Central Karoo. However it needs to be mentioned that TB patients require a higher protein diet which is more costly than the menu for acute hospital patients. The food cost per inpatient day at Brewelskloof TB hospital in Worcester is around R37.
[b] Prevention of recurrence of non-payment of orders resulting in non-delivery of food:
- All outstanding accounts have been settled.
- The Devolved Internal Control Unit did training on supply chain management procedures and assisted in setting up the stores and updated bin cards for the various food stores.
- A register was implemented to keep track of all invoices received from Nelspoort with a designated person at Beaufort West to take responsibility for the invoices.
- A process map document was submitted for implementation at Beaufort West supply chain management to reduce invoices not paid within 30 days. Progress in the implementation of the process map will be monitored by the Devolved Internal Control Unit with regular reporting to the Eden District office.
