Health and Wellness

1. and (b)

I am aware that service pressures are being experienced across our public healthcare platform, including  at Mitchells Plain Hospital and Khayelitsha District Hospital. Challenges relating to service pressures are not isolated to individual facilities, but form part of broader system-wide demand linked to population growth, the burden of disease, trauma and violence, mental health needs, constrained resources, and human resource pressures.

(c) Similar service pressures are experienced across other facilities in the Western Cape, including hospitals, community health centres, community day centres, clinics, emergency centres, and specialised services.

The Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness is responding through a combination of immediate, medium-term, and longer-term interventions, including:

• Strengthening patient flow and triage: Emergency and outpatient services continue to prioritise patients according to clinical need. This ensures that emergency and urgent cases are attended to first, while stable patients are managed through appropriate service channels.
• Filling critical posts: The Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness continues to prioritise the filling of funded critical clinical posts, within the available budget, to stabilise frontline services and reduce pressure on existing staff.
• Using overtime, agency support, and task-sharing where appropriate: Facilities use available mechanisms to support service continuity during periods of high demand, while balancing this against the risk of staff fatigue and burnout.
• Decongesting facilities through differentiated models of care: Stable chronic patients are supported through mechanisms such as multi-month dispensing, external medicine collection points, the Chronic Dispensing Unit, and other streamlined chronic care options. This reduces repeat visits to facilities and allows clinical teams to focus on patients who require active assessment and care.
• Strengthening primary healthcare: The Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness continues to focus on prevention, early detection, health promotion, and primary healthcare management so that conditions can be managed earlier and closer to where people live, reducing unnecessary pressure on hospitals.
• Improving referral pathways across the health ecosystem: Facilities work within an integrated referral system so that patients can access the right level of care, at the right time, and at the most appropriate facility. This includes strengthening links between clinics, district hospitals, regional hospitals, central hospitals, EMS, and specialised services.
• Expanding digital and telehealth approaches: The Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness is increasingly using digital systems, telehealth, and data-informed planning to support more efficient service delivery, improve coordination, and reduce unnecessary delays.
• Investing in infrastructure and service redesign: Longer-term infrastructure planning remains critical to easing pressure in the metro..
• Working with partners: The Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness continues to work with communities, other spheres of government, NGOs, academic partners, the private sector, and civil society to strengthen access, prevention, and continuity of care.

While not all pressures can be resolved immediately, the focus remains on stabilising services, improving patient flow, supporting staff, strengthening primary healthcare, and building a more resilient, person-centred health system that improves access to care across the province.