The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health, which has concluded its three-day visit to the Nelson Mandela Metro, says it is shocked by what it found.
The committee visited Uitenhage Hospital, Dora Nginza Hospital, Livingstone Hospital, and the Port Elizabeth Provincial Hospital.
They also engaged with the respective hospital management teams and boards on the implementation of the recommendations of the Public Protector and Health Ombud.
The committee chairperson, Dr. Kenneth Jacobs says they encountered poor infrastructure and overwhelmed staff.
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 says 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. The committee chairperson, Dr. Kenneth Jacobs, says patients’ human rights are being violated.
“We have given some instructions. We want to get reports from the CEO’s 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 CEO’s of the hospitals, provincial leadership, and executive of the Eastern Cape.”
The National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union’s (NEHAWU) regional secretary, Samkelo Msila, says the union’s members are struggling to work under these conditions.
“We welcome the visit from the portfolio committee. Ours from the side of the union is that it should not be 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 Sahra Baartman institutions whereby health institutions need a total overhaul in order to ensure that the function is optimal for the services that are going to the poor.”
Working hard to fix hospitals
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-complexed 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 is 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 30 days to respond in writing to the committee’s findings. –Reporting by Yolanda Kambile
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health finds Nelson Mandela Bay hospitals in a dire state:
