Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize says scooters with mobile sidecar clinics are also being used in East Africa after countries ordered them from the same source that the Eastern Cape Health Department procured its fleet.
The provincial Health Department has suspended its controversial project in which it spent R10 million to order 100 scooters with mobile sidecar clinics intended for use in the province’s rural areas.
The move comes after public outrage as evidence emerged of a hastily organised launch of the scooters, which Mkhize attended last month.
Mkhize says the scooters were procured to support the department’s transport system.
In the video below, the Eastern Cape health reacts to backlash over the scooters:
Confusion is continuing on how the issue is being handled, after Mkhize said on Thursday that the Eastern Cape did not consult his department on the specifications of the medical scooters.
He was speaking in a written reply to a Parliamentary question by DA MP Siviwe Gwarube who wanted to know if the scooters were suitable for transporting patients and whether the national Health Department was consulted before the procurement.
I asked @DrZweliMkhize whether the EC Scooters were suitable patient transport. He confirmed that they don’t meet EMS regulations but contradicts MEC Gompa by saying they are for delivering chronic meds, not transporting patients. Why the bed, drip stands & the R10m price tag? pic.twitter.com/sWv0bqogsV
— Siviwe Gwarube (@Siviwe_G) July 9, 2020
Dr Mkhize said the scooters did not meet the criteria for transporting patients. He said the province had been informed that none of the scooters should be used as ambulances.
In the video below, reaction on Mkhize’s assertion on the scooters:
The Eastern Cape Health Department’s Head Dr Thobile Mbengashe on Friday sought to clarify the confusion surrounding the controversial procurement.
“What is being clarified now is that we are not buying scooters to transport patients. We are buying them to transport community health workers. What we are really demonstrating is that it can be possible to put those kinds of side parts to put patients and what we saw there was actually that can be done. It’s not what we bought (them for), but what the scooters are actually capable of doing,” Mbengashe explained.
In the video below, Mbengashe explains the R10 million scooter debacle:
