Union wants Health MEC to be held accountable for state of Oncology services
"We have been vocal about the cancer treatment crisis in KZN since 2009."
THE Health and Other Service Personnel Trade Union of South Africa (Hospersa) says the report by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on the provision of Oncology services in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) confirms what they have been vocal about since 2009.
Hospersa General Secretary, Noel Desfontaines said: “We have been vocal about the cancer treatment crisis in KZN since 2009 when the DoH was caught up in a multi-million rand corruption scandal involving the maintenance contract of radiography machines at Addington Hospital. In July 2014, we addressed a letter to the National Minister of Health demanding a health task team to investigate the comprehensive breakdown in delivery of health care service to the people of KZN. In that letter, we claimed that the conduct of the KZN Health MEC and the KZN Health Head of Department was inexcusable. In June 2015, we handed a memorandum to the erstwhile Premier of KZN, highlighting the fact that the care of cancer patients in the province was compromised.”
According to the Union, poor leadership, no proper management plan and corruption are some of the reasons why the health sector is in a bad state.
“The investigation regarding the maintenance contract debacle has been going on for years and hopefully, the culprits will soon be brought to account for their role in the KZN oncology crisis. What happened to the Ernst& Young forensic report conducted in 2015? It was never made public. What was the real reason behind stopping the payment of the maintenance contract for the Addington machines? In 2012, the then HOD was quoted as saying: ’This issue is a web of corruption, lies and deceit. But we will get to the bottom of it’. Hospersa members marched against corruption in the KZN Health Department including the department’s failure to maintain the Addington radiography machines in 2015,” he said.
Desfontaines further said that they were not able to confirm the number of patients who had been turned away or left to die without having received the necessary cancer treatment. “However, the department by its own admission in its submissions to the SAHRC, sees 2500 cancer patients a year (a figure that I believe is well and truly understated). Addington Hospital saw about 80 patients a day according to some report from the Department of Health,” he said.
“The KZN MEC for Health must be held accountable for the collapse of the province’s oncology service, the buck stops with him. We support the recommendation by the SAHRC for an investigation by the Health Ombudsman. The Department must acknowledge that they have failed cancer patients in KZN and work with all its social partners to rebuild the image of the department,” added Desfontaines.
