148-bed Mitchells Plain Transitional Care Facility alleviates service pressures

148-bedded Mitchells Plain Transitional Care Facility is alleviating service pressures on hospital platform

Today, Western Cape Minister of Health and Wellness, Professor Nomafrench Mbombo, visited the Mitchells Plain Transitional Care Facility to see how its operations are alleviating pressure on the acute hospital platform.

This facility is capacitated with 148 beds and provides intermediate care. This means that medically stable patients who are unable to be discharged but do not require acute care, will be able to fully recuperate without congesting the hospital platform.

While the department has always offered intermediate care through our NPOs, the implementation of our Transitional Care Policy in September 2022 has outlined the concepts, principles and considerations for the implementation of transitional care in the Western Cape. This has evolved from our previous policy position of intermediate care released in 2012 and also accounts for the lessons learnt during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Currently, in terms of transitional care capacity, the Western Cape has 539 beds in the metro and 353 in the rural health districts. These services fall under the Sub-acute, Step down and Chronic Medical Hospitals sub-programme in our budget, which has been allocated R469.875 million for the 2024/25 financial year.

At the Mitchells Plain Transitional Care Facility, the Department contracts the NPO, Aquarius, to offer the following services: short-stay intense rehabilitation, wound care, end-of-life care, post-acute care and palliative care for admitted clients and guidance of families as part of the health promotion and supportive education provided by the facility.

CEO of the Western Cape Rehabilitation Centre, Ms Fatima Peters, who also oversees the metro’s transitional care services, said, “Following the Covid-19 pandemic and the implementation of the Western Cape Transitional Care Policy, the department is making use of transitional care in order to alleviate the pressures being placed on our acute hospital platform. Facilities such as the Mitchells Plain Transitional Care Facility are playing a crucial role in bringing together multidisciplinary teams, including rehabilitation and community care workers, to provide these essential packages of care.”

Minister Mbombo concluded with, “As our country navigates a constrained budgetary period, we must look at ways to ensure that the whole healthcare system is strengthened to manage both the present and future demands. This is why transitional care is, and will continue to be, a strategic focus for the department going forward. With our acute hospital services operating under immense pressure, transitional care facilities such as these are playing an important role in our service redesign process where we are aiming to optimise the efficiency, equity and quality of care across the province.”