South Africa Government

02/20/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 02/20/2024 23:18

Gauteng Health hosts Clinicians’ Indaba to address perfomance challenges, 21 Feb

The Gauteng Department of Health's Forensic Medical Services (FMS) has recently been faced with a high number of case backlogs such as the processing of unidentified and unclaimed bodies in our mortuaries, poor turn-around time and the finalisation of post-mortem reports and their capturing including a spike in the number of GBV, sexual assault, domestic violence cases.

To consolidate measures aimed at addressing the above-mentioned challenges and trends, the Gauteng Forensic Medical Services is hosting a one-day indaba, which will be attended by various role-players in the sector such as the Gauteng Department of Community Safety, SAPS and National Prosecuting Authority.

Some of the interventions being implemented include:

  • The introduction of the Digital Fingerprint System which has been instrumental in the identification of unknown bodies and the tracing of families of known unclaimed bodies.
  • Recruiting of previously employed forensic pathology doctors to perform sessional autopsy duties where necessary
  • Recruiting of unemployed young people to assist in converting written post- mortems reports into digital files
  • The opening of a Forensic Pathology Services Training Room at the Ga-Rankuwa Forensic Pathology Services to train more specialists in the area of forensic pathology.

Members of the media are invited to cover the indaba.
Details are as follows:
Date: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Time: 08:30 - 10:30
Venue: Garden Court OR Tambo International Airport.

Confirmation of media attendance should be directed to Ms Lesego Masilo on 082 313 0744.

Media enquiries:

Motalatale Modiba, Head of Communication
Cell: 064 803 0808
E-mail: [email protected]

Tshepo Shawa, Spokesperson for the MEC for Health
Cell: 072 222 6333
E-mail: [email protected]