The KwaZulu-Natal Health Department will investigate at least four cases where women who went to public hospitals for a mammogram after discovering a lump in their breasts, were told that they can only get appointments next August.
This as the MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo says a lot of progress has been made following a damning report on cancer treatment backlogs.
The Human Rights Commission found that patients’ rights were violated, with waiting times of about 5 months to see an oncologist and another 6 months to receive radiotherapy.
Acting Deputy Director General Lungi Khanyile says radiologists are visiting several regional hospitals to help alleviate backlogs.
“I would need to understand what is happening, how many patients they book a day… What is causing that? Is it the load, or is it the time they have allocated to doing the mammograms in all the hospitals? We can follow that up after this, just to understand what particularly the problem is, because that’s a long time. It’s almost a year – and that’s not acceptable,” says Khanyile.
Watch related video below
