TimesLIVE Premium reports that according to outgoing health ombudsman Prof Malegapuru Makgoba, two of SA's most dysfunctional provincial health departments lack progress, leadership, capacity or vision.

Reflecting on the end of his seven-year tenure on Wednesday, the country’s first health ombudsman pulled no punches. He said the Eastern Cape health department was an “embarrassment”, and Gauteng’s health department was “problematic” and “changed its CEOs [like] panties”. The Free State health department, added Makgoba, was characterised by “disorder and no harmony”. Makgoba said the only province that “seems to have got its act together is the Western Cape”. Of just more than 10,000 complaints his office had received, half were from Gauteng, which he said was run like Eskom and lacked stability due to frequent changes of top leadership, resulting in poor service delivery. Makgoba said an investigation into Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital in Gauteng found that “the criteria for appointing the leadership of hospitals is the weakest”. His office also found the hospital to be unsafe, filthy, neglected with crumbling infrastructure and disrespectful to patients. “You have your best province run by Mickey Mouse ... what do you expect? Makgoba asked.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Sipokazi Fokazi at TimesLIVE Premium (subscriber access only)

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