Thanks to brilliant innovations, international awards and strong and tested management, the NHLS is building a reputation as an organisation that achieves its goals and helps to build and maintain a long and healthy life for all South Africans.
The National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) was established in 2001 as a government institution with the aim of providing leading diagnostic pathology services to the public sector healthcare industry in South Africa.
The organisation was created following the merging of the South African Institute for Medical Research (SAIMR), the National Centre for Occupational Health and the National Institute for Virology. At the same time, the NHLS also took on various provincial health department and university-run pathology laboratories.
Today, the NHLS has over 300 laboratories across the nine provinces of South Africa and serves approximately 80% of the South African population. Working closely with the Department of Health, the NHLS is working tirelessly towards its vision of building a healthy nation through early detection, diagnosis and monitoring to prevent, manage and treat diseases to reduce the disease burden, and promote health and wellness, thereby ensuring a ‘long and healthy life for all South Africans’.
The healthcare industry is not an easy one in which to operate – especially in South Africa where the public health system is under-funded and there is a big price to pay for private healthcare. In Deloitte’s 2015 outlook for healthcare in South Africa, the professional services company detailed issues facing the healthcare sector including funding, retaining skilled staff, improving quality, lacking technology and disparity between private and public offerings.
Valter Adão, Life Sciences and Healthcare Industry Leader at Deloitte said: “South Africa’s most pressing health care challenge – one which spans funders, administrators and providers – is how to lower costs across the value chain while also improving health care outcomes for patients.
“There are currently more than 400 public hospitals and around 215 private hospitals in South Africa. The government has acknowledged the need to significantly improve the quality of care in public hospitals.”
But despite the conditions, worsened by the current economic climate, the NHLS has proven itself resilient and, after installing new management and investing in new technologies, it has been internationally recognised for its endeavours.
NEW CEO
In September, after long-serving former CEO Sagie Pillay had left the business a year earlier, the NHLS announced that Ms Joyce Mogale would take over, following a yearlong period as Interim CEO.
“This appointment is extra special for the organisation as Ms Mogale is the first black woman to be appointed in this role since the organisation’s inception in 2001,” the company announced.
Professor Barry Schoub, Chairperson of the NHLS Board said: “I trust that all members of our NHLS family will join me and the Board in offering our fullest support to Ms Mogale in her new role, in order to ensure that our organisation continues to provide quality, affordable and sustainable health laboratory services and related public health services to all citizens in our country.”
Mogale said she was proud and honoured to take the role and, considering her experience, it is easy to see why she was chosen. She holds a Master’s in Business Management (MBA), Postgraduate Diploma in Health Management, BSc (Hons) status in Medical Sciences, Higher National and a National Diplomas in Medical Laboratory Technology. She has previously worked as Regional Executive Manager of the NHLS and Deputy Director: Laboratory Services in the Department of Health and Welfare in Limpopo. She has experience as a Director of various SMMEs and is a Non-Executive Director or Board Trustee on a number of boards across a range of industries.
In the organisations 2014/15 annual report, Mogale reiterated the NHLS’s position as a n industry leader and paid tribute to the on-going hard work of staff.
“The NHLS remains a significant player in realising Government’s aim of ensuring that all South Africans have equitable access to healthcare. We are known in many circles to be leaders in our field and I have every confidence that this will continue… As an organisation, we have remained resilient through our challenges and have not deviated from placing patient care first. I would like to extend my gratitude to the staff of the NHLS for their commitment, dedication and hard work,” she said.
E-JUBA
In October, the NHLS and its Wits Emeritus Professor, Barry Mendelow announced that they had developed a drone for the transportation of medical cargoes between rural clinics and urban centres.
Named e-Juba and based on the principles of using carrier pigeons, the system involves a hand-launched, SA designed drone capable of carrying cargo for more than 30 km. Developed by Jaco Davel of Somerset West, the system can carry disinfected sputum samples for DNA-based molecular diagnosis of TB and identification of sequences indicative of drug resistance. Mendelow, who presented the innovative idea at the AJ Orenstein Memorial Lecture at Wits University, said: “When we started our project several years ago, the average wait was six weeks for a diagnosis of tuberculosis. Now it can be done with this mobility in one day.”
Having already clocked up more than 300 test flights, e-Juba has proven its reliability and has also demonstrated significant cost savings compared to land-based carrier solutions.
iJuba is the Zulu word for pigeon so, logically, e-Juba is the electronic pigeon and it looks like you can expect this NHLS innovation to gain more traction in the near future. “We’re confident that in the next five years we’ll see a dramatic use of drones as carrying medical cargoes, which is most exciting and viable,” said Mendelow.
AWARD WINNING
Last year, just before the success of e-Juba was announced, the NHLS was also celebrating international commendation. The organisation was nominated by the Swiss Institute for Quality Standards (SIQS) and the Socrates Committee to receive the international award in ‘European Quality’ in the healthcare spherecategory. After winning the 2013 Business Initiative Directions (BID) International Star Award for quality, the NHLS remains hungry for international recognition.
The nomination serves as recognition and affirmation of the NHLS’ position as a leader in pathology and diagnostic services on the African continent and Mogale said: “It is with great honour and pride for the NHLS to be nominated for this prestigious award, as it not only represents the organisation, but depicts the great strides and continuous improvements, which the South African healthcare landscape has made over the years, and also attributes to the overwhelming dedication and commitment of the NHLS staff.”
Following its nomination, the NHLS went on to win the award in Montreux, Switzerland and was officially recognised for safe and effective treatment methods, highly professional medical staff and service quality in accordance to European standards.
“For the NHLS, the award serves as affirmation of its position as a leader in the practice of pathology and the rendering of laboratory-based diagnostic services to South Africa and increasingly to the African continent and beyond,” the company said.
If the organisation can continue with success at this rate, it will undoubtedly achieve the aim of Chairman Schoub who said last year that he hoped to “create a NHLS that will be one of the flagships in the coming NHI dispensation, by supplying life-saving laboratory support to the maintenance of a healthy South Africa”.