“We are not going to be punitive, because we understand the challenges that our health workers work within, but we have entered a process which we will share with the human rights commission and the family on the processes that we have taken in addressing all the issues of training, rehabilitation and general management of the hospital.”

The five-year plan

Masuku said the department was working on a five-year plan which aimed to ensure the quality of services and care received by patients. It included ensuring that health workers were provided with necessary equipment and the appointment of a new CEO at the Mamelodi hospital.

“It’s an ongoing process, it’s not going to be something with an end date, because it’s part of our five-year plan in terms of our priorities to make sure that we improve patient experience. Part of that is making sure that our health workers work in a conducive environment, with necessary equipment.”

Undisclosed settlement amount 

The department would not be drawn into disclosing the settlement amount, but saidMarais was in “good spirits and doing better”. She now received her treatment from Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria.

Receiving help 

Family spokesperson Virginia Keppler told eNCA that counselling had helped in Marais’ recovery. “She did receive counselling and she’s doing much better, and what we’re happy about is that she speaks less and less about the incident.”