Starting from next year, he said: “current and future hospitals chief executive officers and managers would have to be trained on how to run public healthcare facilities”.

“This will ensure that managers and CEOs are ready to handle the day-to-day running of public healthcare facilities.”

Announcing this new initiative aimed at addressing skills gaps at all levels of clinical and hospital management, Motsoaledi explained that it was a critical move for South Africa.

“A study commissioned by the department of health on the competency of hospital CEOs identified many weaknesses in management skills which made us decide to establish an academy like this.”

The academy which is expected to open its doors in January will focus on:
» Developing a national management and leadership competence framework for the health sector based on a needs analysis;
» Undertaking a competency assessment of key post holders;
» Developing an inventory of health leadership and management training capacity within and outside the health sector; and
» Ensuring competency requirements are implemented for appointments to leadership and management positions in the health sector.

Motsoaledi said this training would help prepare new managers on what is expected of them as heads of facilities.