Parliament’s Committee on health is not pleased with the state of the hospitals in EC

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health has engaged the Eastern Cape Health Department regarding its findings following a two-day oversight visit to hospitals in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro.

The committee says it found the hospitals in a poor state with regards to infrastructure, rendered services and overwhelmed staff.

The committee’s chairperson Kenneth Jacobs says urgent and strong intervention is required.

“We have given some instructions, we want to get reports from the CEOs on the recommendations of the Public Protector, SIU and also Health Ombud and our recommendations.  Within three months we are going to have a follow-up meeting with the CEOs of the hospitals, provincial leadership and executive of the Eastern Cape.”

The committee members were upset about the state of the hospitals in the region. They spoke about the dirty linen, broken windows and doors and ineffective service delivery in important sections like maternity and trauma wards.

One committee member said the Dora Nginza Hospital has the potential to become another Life Esidimeni scandal, referring to the deaths of more than 140 people at psychiatric facilities in Gauteng from causes including starvation and neglect.

Jacobs, says patients’ human rights are being violated.

Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health finds Nelson Mandela Bay hospitals in a dire state

NEHAWU’S regional secretary, Samkelo Msila, says the union’s members are struggling to work under these conditions.

“We welcome the visit for the portfolio committee from the side of the union… it should not be a lip service but it should be something that they are going to make recommendations which are going to talk to the challenges that are faced by the Nelson Mandela Metro as well as Sarah Baartman institutions whereby health institutions need a total overhaul in order to ensure that the fiction optimal for the services that are going to the poor.”

The MEC for Health, Nomakhosazana Meth, says they are working hard to fix these hospitals and fill vacancies in the department.

“What we are taking home as a Department of Health from this exercise is the need to work fast and with speed to finish the complex, in that we see which Livingstone hospital, Dora Nginza and PE provincial being a complex, that has been de-complex but not finalised. We must have Dora Nginza and Livingstone offering tertiary services and still increase the number of hospitals offering district health services -the reason we see people just go from the clinic to the tertiary hospital, something that has never been seen.”

The Health Department says that at least R1.9 billion is required to refurbish government hospitals in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro. It also asked for thirty days to respond in writing to the committee’s findings.

State of EC hospitals leaves parliamentarians perturbed: