Motsoaledi hails public health success after separation of conjoined twins

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has revealed that an operation separating conjoined twins would have cost more than R4 million at a private hospital. 

He said there needs to be a better investment in public health facilities because specialists are capable of performing complex surgeries. 

The minister was speaking at the Mankweng Hospital in Limpopo on Friday, where doctors successfully separated twins who were joined at the abdomen. 

Motsoaledi has celebrated the team of specialists who delivered this rare medical breakthrough. 

He said the narrative that public hospitals are inefficient needs to change.

Motsoaledi said many surgeries, which were the first of their kind for the country, began in the 1960s with a heart transplant and later another operation of conjoined twins, all of which happened at public facilities in the country. 

"During that period, a private hospital was just a convenience store where you go for a quick thing, if the operation is serious, they send you to a public hospital, but then what happened, we deprive public facilities of resources."

He said the surgery has again proven the capabilities of health professionals at public facilities.

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