NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO. 829
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 2010
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 8)
Mrs H Lamoela (DA) to ask the Minister of Health:
(1) (a) How many National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) are there in
the country and (b) where are they situated;
(2) what is the (a)(i) optimal and (ii) actual staffing complement for
each category of worker at each NHLS and (b)(i) income and (ii)
expenditure of each NHLS;
(3) whether there are any backlogs at any NHLS; if so, (a) what is the
backlog in each case and (b) what are the reasons for the backlog in
each case;
(4) whether there are service delivery standards whereby analyses have to
be completed; if not, why not; if so, what are the turnaround times;
(5) whether any of the backlogs have exceeded this maximum period; if so,
by how many days?
NW964E
REPLY:
(1) (a) We do not have National Health Laboratory Services in the
Country, we have only one (1) National Health Laboratory
Services (NHLS).
(b) The NHLS has its headquarters in Sandringham, Johannesburg. It
has the following service Regions:
Central Region: Southern Gauteng
Free State Province
Northern Cape Province
Coastal Region: Western Cape Province
Eastern Cape Province
KwaZulu/Natal: Entire Province of KwaZulu/Natal
Northern Region: Northern Gauteng
Limpopo Province
Mpumalanga Province
North West Province
There are 265 laboratories under the service and they are spread
throughout the country.
We also have the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD)
and the National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH) also falling
under the service.
(2) (a) The following table reflects the situation in this regard
|Employee category |Mar-09 |
|Â |Centr|Coast|Corpora|KZN |NICD|NIOH|Northe|Gran|
| |al |al |te |Regio| | |rn |d |
| |Regio|Regio|Region |n | | |Region|Tota|
| |n |n | | | | | |l |
|Executive |1 |Â |3 |1 |1 |1 |1 |8 |
|Management | | | | | | | | |
|Senior Management |6 |10 |12 |9 |8 |4 |9 |58 |
|Laboratory |112 |73 |1 |58 |11 |Â |104 |359 |
|Management | | | | | | | | |
|Pathologist and |74 |54 |0 |24 |15 |5 |43 |215 |
|medical officer | | | | | | | | |
|Registrar |76 |59 |0 |30 |1 |0 |44 |210 |
|Medical Scientist |71 |25 |0 |7 |45 |30 |15 |193 |
|Medical Scientist -|27 |5 |8 |4 |23 |4 |6 |77 |
|intern | | | | | | | | |
|Medical |383 |402 |3 |300 |38 |8 |234 |1368|
|Technologist | | | | | | | | |
|Student Medical |145 |94 |0 |74 |5 |0 |110 |428 |
|Technologist | | | | | | | | |
|Medical Technician |81 |89 |5 |105 |6 |4 |109 |399 |
|Student Medical |61 |87 |0 |57 |1 |2 |97 |305 |
|Technician | | | | | | | | |
|Laboratory support |732 |481 |33 |533 |101 |27 |448 |2355|
|Corporate Support |69 |63 |240 |27 |44 |14 |26 |483 |
|Grand Total |1838 |1442 |305 |1229 |299 |99 |1246 |6458|
A
As at 31 March 2009, the headcount for NHLS was 6,458. The
following table reflects the situation in this regard
|Employee Category |Â |
| | |
|Â |Mar-09 |
|Executive management |8 |
|Senior management |58 |
|Laboratory management |359 |
|Pathologist and medical officer |215 |
|Registrar |210 |
|Medical scientist |193 |
|Medical scientist â intern |77 |
|Medical technologist |1,368 |
|Student medical technologist |428 |
|Medical technician |399 |
|Student medical technician |305 |
|Laboratory support |2,355 |
|Corporate support |483 |
|Grand total |6,458 |
(b) (i) R2,349 billion, as at 31 March 2009
ii) R2,128 billion, as at 31 March 2009
(3) No, there are no backlogs at this time.
(4) The NHLS has a Quality Assurance Division with a full
institutionalized quality assurance programme in place. There are
proper policies with ongoing monitoring and evaluation systems in
place for all aspects of quality of service provision to its users
(such as technical quality, client satisfaction and supplier support)
and provide information to enable the NHLS regional quality assurance
structures to provide support when and where required. The programmes
include formal annual accreditation for academic and other large
laboratories, annual functional audits covering all laboratories and
proficiency testing schemes happen in every laboratory between 3-12
times a year, depending on the discipline, and finally an annual
customer satisfaction survey with quarterly surveys done randomly
across a cross-section of the laboratories.
(5) Not applicable, as there are no backlogs.
END.