Khayelitsha District Hospital has appointed a new chief executive officer who has promised to turn the facility, which has often made the headlines for all the wrong reasons, into a “centre of excellence”.
Malibongwe Binza has previously worked at Crossroads Clinic, was manager at the Site B Khayelitsha Health Hospital and acting CEO of the KDH before taking up his new post – which, he says, he knows will not be a walk in the park.
Among the challenges he faces are overworked staff, low morale, long queues of patients and the absence of a working relationship among Khayelitsha’s health facilities.
“To address these, he says, he aims to improve the hospital’s relationship not only with other facilities, but also with the community.
“My vision for Khayelitsha hospital is to make it a people’s hospital and centre for excellence.
“Another objective is to co-ordinate the provision of the district hospital package of care, participate in the whole society approach and help improve the lives of our people,” he says.
“I plan to help them deal better with matters regarding psycho-socio-economic challenges that add to their burden of diseases and social determinants of health. My strategy is to invest in staff so that they can be able to invest in our clients by provisioning them with support, motivation, treating staff and patients as equal, consulting, co-creating,and making sustainable decisions with applicable stakeholders and resolving labour related matters.”
He believes patients should be treated with dignity and that many staff do not have the best interest of the people of Khayelitsha at heart.
This, he says, is largely due to the fact that many staff are contracted through agencies.
“We want people committed to the cause.
“We will also conduct health education for our people.
“But all this is a process. It is going to take some time,” he said.
Mr Binza was born in Cofimvaba and studied at the then University of Transkei before joining the Department of Health Carinus Nursing College at Groote Schuur Hospital. After that he worked at the then GF Jooste Hospital in Manenberg, Valkenberg Hospital, Drakenstein Prison, Vanguard CHC and Goodwood Prison.
In 2008 he was appointed manager at Crossroad CDC and five years later went to manage Site B CHC.
He was acting CEO of Khayelitsha Hospital from September to December 2019 and was employed as CEO at Cofimvaba Hospital in January 2020 for five months, before moving to Frontier Hospital as acting CEO for two months. He then returned to Cape Town where he took up the post of Khayelitsha Hospital CEO at the beginning of August.
