​The introduction of contingency measures has resulted in the stabilisation of healthcare services at Gauteng health facilities despite longer turnaround times.
The Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH) gave this assurance to the public on Friday (19 July) when giving an update on the impact on health services since the National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) cyber-attack incident.
Facilities are still experiencing delays that are beyond the normal and agreed turnaround times. However, despite the delays, the increased use of point of care machines, NHLS' utilisation of private laboratories for critical tests focusing on emergency cases particularly at high volume facilities, the broadening of access to the eLab system for clinicians to register and retrieve critical results has contributed to improving the situation. 
Since the cyber-attack incident occurred towards the end of June 2024 causing widespread disruption, the level of service at our facilities continues to improve. This was further attested to on Mandela Day (July 18) when facilities were able to carry out over 740 surgeries as part of the second edition of the Surgical Marathon initiative, thus outperforming the target for the day and the previous year. 
The GDoH continues to urge the public to remain patient as the NHLS works diligently to fully restore their systems.