Latest news with #NomaguguSimelane
The Citizen
2 days ago
- Health
- The Citizen
KZN Health unveils plan to upgrade Vryheid District Hospital
A major upgrade is in the pipeline for Vryheid District Hospital, with KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane announcing that the facility will be upgraded to a regional hospital. The announcement was made on July 11 during the Isibhedlela Kubantu outreach programme, hosted at Cliffdale Sportsfield in Ward 23, Hlobane. The proposed upgrade aims to improve access to quality healthcare for rural communities, especially those burdened by poverty, long travel distances, and affordability challenges. MEC Simelane said the initiative forms part of the department's commitment to bringing healthcare services closer to the people and ensuring that no one is left behind due to geography or financial constraints. 'The upgrade of the Vryheid Hospital to a regional facility will result in the facility being equipped with state-of-the-art medical technology and specialist services,' said MEC Simelane. The move will reduce the burden on the major hospitals such as Ngwelezane Hospital in Empangeni, Grey's Hospital in Pietermaritzburg and Albert Luthuli Central Hospital in Durban. These are currently the only hospitals that offer specialist care for rural communities who have travel long distances to access care. 'It was historically wrong that people in rural areas had to travel for days just to see a medical specialist,' said MEC Simelane. 'It was unjust that only urban populations had access to top-tier medical equipment and clinical experts. We are changing that. Everyone, regardless of where they live, deserves access to decent and dignified healthcare,' she said. MEC Simelane also assisted with the availability of a mobile clinic in the area, which will come into effect on Friday and every Friday continuously. The Isibhedlela Kubantu programme is a platform to deliver healthcare directly to communities and promote health education. ALSO READ: Hospital seeks public's help to locate family of unidentified patient The news provided to you in this link comes to you from the editorial staff of the Vryheid Herald, a sold newspaper distributed in the Vryheid area. At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
IOL News
10-07-2025
- Health
- IOL News
New R14 million CT scanner at Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital promises faster patient care
KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane and officials admire the new 128-slice CT scanner at Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital. Image: Tumi Pakkies / Independent Newspapers Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital patients will receive faster and more efficient care now that the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health has procured a CT scanner worth approximately R14 million. On Thursday, Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane and several officials were at Prince Mshiyeni Hospital to unveil the R14m state-of-the-art CT scanner. Simelane expressed her excitement over the CT scan since the old scan, which had been problematic for more than two years, finally gave up in December last year. It was also difficult to get different parts because it was old. This forced the department to discontinue its use and procure a new machine. The old machine had 16 slices while the new one has 128 slices. 'That impacts the swift response to patients,' Simelane said. 'Allowing more patients to access it, allowing patients to get results as quickly as possible.' 'It is really going to be a game changer for this hospital, considering that this hospital sees over 1,500 patients a day. So you certainly need equipment that's going to allow the hospital to actually do the work in the most efficient way.' Councilor Zamazulu Sokhabase, KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane, and Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital board deputy Nompumelelo Sithole cutting the ribbon during the unveiling of a new CT scanner on Thursday. Image: Tumi Pakkies / Independent Newspapers Simelane said it was not a cheap machine. 'That is why, as a department, we couldn't just outright buy a new machine and replace the old one; we had to try and use it as far as we could.' She said last year, she received several complaints from patients saying they had been waiting for a CT scan at the hospital, and others said they were turned back because the machine was not working. 'As the healthcare fraternity, we are concerned about the sharp global increase in cancer cases — globally, across the African continent, in South Africa, and right here in KwaZulu-Natal,' Simelane said. 'The importance of early detection cannot be overstated, particularly when it comes to cancer, which is a disease that spreads quickly. Every day counts. Early diagnosis leads to better treatment outcomes. This CT scanner enables quicker detection, faster treatment initiation, and ultimately, better survival rates, especially for cancer patients,' Simelane said. 'So this one is going to be a game changer, and the people who are utilising this facility are going to benefit immensely. 'This is the first for us in the province, and we are going to be rolling it out to other facilities in the rest of the province.' KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane and officials admire the R14 million 128-slice CT scan at Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital. Image: Tumi Pakkies/ Independent Newspapers Devon Harripersad, a sales representative for AXIM, which provides radiological and imaging solutions to Sub-Saharan Africa, said it is a 128-slice machine, meaning that per second, the machine is slicing, taking out X-rays of a patient. 'You can do a full body scan within seconds, which means that your time limit is reduced, the patient number is increased, and you can do many more studies in terms of this new machine,' Harripersad explained. 'This will help alleviate the backlog.' Harripersad said the machine can be used for cancer and orthopaedics, among others. He also explained that certain studies require them to inject a patient. It is like a dye, it differentiates all the organs from each other and all the tissues, from bone.
IOL News
10-07-2025
- Health
- IOL News
New water treatment plant at Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital tackles water supply crisis
Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital board chairperson Ntando Khuzwayo, Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital board deputy Nompumelelo Sithole, Councilor Zamazulu Sokhabase, and KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane during the official unveiling of the water treatment plant at Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital. Image: Tumi Pakkies / Independent Newspapers Water supply interruptions might be a thing of the past for Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital now that the facility has a water treatment plant to ensure a reliable supply of clean water. In recent months, the hospital and neighbouring communities were plagued by water supply issues. On Thursday, KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane unveiled the R11 million water treatment plant set to mitigate water challenges at the hospital. According to Simelane, the hospital experienced water issues in the latter part of last year and the beginning of this year. A larger issue will arise if the large hospital, which treats about 1,500 patients every day, experiences a water issue. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ 'Today also marks the official opening of the hospital's new water purification plant, which began construction on March 19, 2024,' Simelane said. 'Last time we had a problem, I said we would put in boreholes. Those are ready, but now you can't use the water without cleaning it, hence we needed this purifier. 'Before, our steel tanks would give us water that would last about three days. Now that we've resuscitated the concrete reservoir, we have more storage capacity. Now we will have water that can last us at least five days if there isn't water in the area. 'So we don't foresee ourselves having a water problem moving forward or having a problem that will last us longer,' Simelane continued. 'So we are very excited… if we have a problem, we can intervene and find a solution.' Councilor Zamazulu Sokhabase, KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane, and project leader Thanduxolo Dlamini during the official unveiling of the water treatment plant at Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital. Image: Tumi Pakkies / Independent Newspapers KZN Department of Health project leader Thanduxolo Dlamini said they had two projects. The first project is a borehole project. They will use the borehole as a secondary water supply source, with the eThekwini Municipality as the main source. Dlamini said there are many water interruptions that hamper service delivery in terms of patient care. 'This is how the back-up water supply project came into being. We don't want to rely solely on municipal water. We want to have a backup water supply. So we explored or we sank four boreholes,' Dlamini said. He explained that the total abstraction rate from the boreholes is 620,000 litres. However, they will only abstract 560,000 litres every 16 hours, so they purify it and take it into the hospital for human consumption. Dlamini said the second project is the concrete reservoir built the same year as the hospital. A couple of years ago, the reservoir leaked severely and lost water, so it was condemned. 'So with these water interruptions going forward, coupled to that was Eskom's load shedding, which the municipal pumps during load shedding don't pump up water, there was a need for us to rehabilitate the concrete reservoir,' Dlamini explained. 'We rehabilitated the concrete reservoir so that we can have at least a five-day water storage in case we do not receive water from the municipality. The total water storage for all three reservoirs is 5.5 megalitres. That is enough for a five-day water storage because the demand for the hospital is 1.1 megalitres per day.'
IOL News
07-07-2025
- Health
- IOL News
South Africa weighs in on global movement restricting social media for under-16s
South Africa has joined the global conversation on restricting social media access for under-16s. With growing concern over the impact of social media on children's mental health, several countries, including Australia, France, and even some U.S. states, are calling for a ban on under-16s joining social platforms. In South Africa, the conversation is gaining momentum as KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC, Nomagugu Simelane raised concerns about the harmful effects of social media. Simelane recently made an impassioned appeal for parents to get more involved in their children's digital lives. Speaking on the KZN Health Chat multimedia programme, she warned of the links between social media use and anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and even suicide among young people. 'Our children become severely affected by social media,' said Simelane. 'You realise that as parents, we take it for granted, thinking 'it's just a phone.' But you find cases whereby a child may take their own life, only to find that it's due to the pressure that they had put themselves under, based on what they see on social media.' Simelane stressed the dangers of cyberbullying and digital peer pressure. She highlighted a case where a learner superimposed another student's face onto a sex worker's profile as an example of the devastating consequences of unsupervised online access. South Africa now has 26.7 million active adult social media users, with numbers rising by over 700,000 in just one year. 95% of children in grades 4 to 11 (ages 10 to 17) have regular internet access, and 83% of 12-year-olds already possess at least one social media account. As a South African mother of 11-year-old girls, I can personally attest to how difficult it is to monitor online use. Like most children today, they turn to Google rather than a library for information, drawn in by content that is visually appealing, addictive, and not always accurate. This endless stream of algorithm-curated material can leave them anxious, unsettled, and craving even more content, some of which is often not age-appropriate.
IOL News
07-07-2025
- Health
- IOL News
KZN Health MEC highlights social media's impact on children's mental health
KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane highlights the alarming impact of social media on children's mental health, urging parents to take an active role in their children's online lives. KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane has issued a strong warning to parents about the dangerous impact social media is having on the mental health of young people, urging them to be more present in their children's digital lives. Speaking during the Department's KZN Health Chat multimedia programme on Friday, Simelane made a heartfelt appeal for parents to pay attention to the content their children are consuming online and who they are interacting with. 'Our children become severely affected by social media,' said Simelane. 'You realise that, as parents, we take it for granted, thinking 'it's just a phone.' But you find cases where a child may take their own life… and everyone is left in shock, asking themselves why, and what happened? Were they depressed? Only to find that it's due to the pressure that they had put themselves under, based on what they see on social media.'
