And much of the credit has been attributed to the new chief executive of the hospital, Dr Naing Soe.

Over the years, the hospital gained a bad reputation for poor services, but Soe said he intended to turn that around completely.

The former Tshwane District Hospital head said he had big plans for Mamelodi Day Hospital, and vowed he would develop it into a five-star health facility.

The hospital received negative headlines last year after a 76-year-old patient from Eersterust, Martha Marais, was found tied to a bench in the waiting area.

Marais’ family eventually reached a settlement with the Department of Health in the province over trauma caused to her.

Soe won numerous awards during his 10-year tenure at the Tshwane District Hospital and said he intended to transform Mamelodi Day Hospital the same way.

“Last year in August they told me the Mamelodi Day Hospital had a very bad reputation. The head of department of the provincial Department of Health appointed me to be the chairperson of the Mamelodi Day Hospital management task team. Within three months I made many improvements and then I got promoted to chief executive in November,” he said.

His strategy was simple: to follow policy guidelines. He said if one was honest and committed, it became easy.

The hospital’s maternity ward is under construction and has moved to a bigger area. Soe said he wanted to put more focus on the maternity and casualty wards and avoid overcrowding in those areas.

He said the hospital did not have a shortage of beds, equipment or budget, but the problem was lack of maintenance and poor governance.

Soe added a waiting area and benches for visitors who waited for visiting hours. Plans were afoot to add a lapa and a gym for staff members.

The psychiatric ward would also be renovated. Last week, the hospital was installing security cameras.

Repairs were done on broken tiles, light bulbs and sprinklers, he said. There were new chairs for staff members, new wheelchairs and 10 new beds for patients. A new CT scanner would be installed soon.

Soe said: “At the Tshwane District Hospital we managed to save a lot of money from the clinical site. Due to a lack of supervision from the government, junior nurses were doing a lot of unnecessary blood tests and millions of rand got wasted that way. With those millions, I improved the infrastructure.”

According to him, if the Mamelodi Day Hospital improved, all the clinics in the community would also improve.

Now that the hospital and its casualty ward were better managed, Soe said, it meant they were no longer congested, and clinics could easily refer their patients because they could now accommodate more people.

Recently he received an Employee of the Month for Leadership and Excellence award at the Premier Service and Excellence Awards.

Soe said it was all through his open-door policy, commitment and friendship with staff.

He said he often helped the patients himself and that he was hands-on in seeing that every patient was assisted fast.

“More than 1300 staff are motivated and unions are very happy and supportive. Community members and leaders are also impressed with the work that’s been done so far. I’ve been reporting all the progress to officials and they have since come and inspected the hospital and agreed that within four months the facility has changed,” he said.

Soe said it was important to always consider healthcare priorities, which were cleanliness, infection control, waiting time, availability of medicine and patients’ safety.

He said he would be more than happy to go to any other hospital and help if need be in the interest of South Africans’ health.