Prioritizing people and rapid learning in times of crisis: A virtual learning initiative to support health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Western Cape province was the early epicentre of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in South Africa and on the African continent. In this short article we report on an initiative set up within the provincial Department of Health early in the pandemic to facilitate collective learning and support for health workers and managers across the health system, emphasising the importance of leadership, systems resilience, nonhierarchical learning and connectedness. These strategies included regular and systematic engagement with organised labour, different ways of gauging and responding to staff morale, and daily 'huddles' for raid learning and responsive action. We propose three transformational actions that could deliver health systems that protect staff during good times and in times of system shocks. (a) Continuously invest in building the foundations of system resilience in good times, to draw on in an acute crisis situation. (b) Provide consistent leadership for an explicit commitment to supporting health workers through decisive action across the system. (c) Optimise available resources and partners, act on improvement ideas and obstacles. Build trusting relationships amongst and across actors.

The First Lady of the Northern Cape: Hospital Management in Godonia District Hospital

Management Teams rely on good information to support strategic planning. Various forms of situation analyses are used to describe and analyse the prevailing situation. The Gordonia Hospital Management and the Initiative for Sub-District Support conducted a situation analysis of the functioning of the hospital in July 1999. Focus areas requiring in-depth analysis were identified during the situation analysis. These were the medical records system; staffing and staff use; stores management; prescribing patterns and the perceptions of users (client satisfaction). These additional pieces of analysis provided additional background for the hospital management team in their strategic planning session in July 2000

Developing a tool to assess Client Satisfaction at District Hospitals

The assessment of client satisfaction; forms an important part of the management of a health facility; especially after the adoption of the Batho Pele (People First) and the Patients Right Charter. The main objective in undertaking this research study was to develop an instrument that would assess the satisfaction levels of clients utilising two district hospitals in South Africa. The hospitals were the Gordonia Hospital in Upington; and the East Griqualand and Usher Memorial Hospitals in Kokstad