The stoma shortage is allegedly not confined to Tambo Memorial Hospital.
Tambo Memorial Hospital, Johannesburg. Picture: Facebook
Gauteng Health says a stoma bag shortage at Tambo Memorial Hospital was resolved in July, but a reliable source and years of correspondence suggest the problem is far older and more complicated than the department has admitted.
The Gauteng Department of Health said this week that a stoma bag shortage at Tambo Memorial Hospital in Boksburg had been fully resolved, insisting that no patient went without supplies and that stock was now sufficient.
However, correspondence reviewed by The Citizen, spanning from 2023 to August 2026, along with an account from a reliable source, painted a picture of a far longer and more troubled history than the department’s account suggested.
Conflicting timelines on when the shortage began
The department on Wednesday said the shortage at Tambo Memorial was a temporary one that occurred in July 2026, not in March as had been claimed.
It attributed the disruption to “a regrettable delay in the procurement process.”
It further stated that the hospital had implemented contingency measures during this period, including sourcing supplies from other facilities in the same health cluster.
The DA disputed this timeline.
On the same day, DA Gauteng health spokesperson Madeleine Hicklin said patients had alerted the hospital to the shortage as early as March 2026, months before the department’s stated starting point.
Correspondence reviewed by The Citizen supported an even earlier origin.
In a message exchange dated May 2023, a medical practitioner at the hospital informed a source that there was “no stock of stoma bags at Tambo Memorial Hospital” and advised against attending a scheduled appointment.
Responding to the shortage at the time, the source alleged, “the corruption and incompetence of Gauteng Health is beyond understanding!”
Rationed supply managed through a private contractor
Hicklin’s statement said that on 5 August 2026, a source informed the DA that a private supplier had been contracted to manage stoma bag distribution at the hospital, with only ten bags provisionally allocated per patient.
She said this allocation would not be enough to cover all patients and that a liaison coordinator would decide who received supplies.
“Patients should not be forced to buy stoma bags themselves, rely on another hospital’s stock, or face an arbitrary allocation process to access supplies they depend on daily,” Hicklin said.
The department, by contrast, maintained that the matter had already been settled by the time this arrangement was reported.
“This matter was resolved within July. Subsequently, the facility received sufficient stock and stoma bags are currently available,” the department said in its statement.
It added that it would continue monitoring stock levels “to minimise the risk of future supply disruptions and ensure continuity of care.”
The apparent contradiction between an arrangement requiring rationed, coordinator-controlled allocation and a claim of full resolution was among the questions put to the department by The Citizen, which said it would respond but had not at the time of publication.
This article will be updated once such a response is received.
Quality complaints and self-managed rationing
The department said in its statement that the hospital “did not receive complaints from patients relating to leakage or the quality of the stoma bags issued during this period.”
This claim was contradicted by an account from a source who described collecting a monthly allocation of pouches “of the incorrect specification.”
Asked separately about their own supply practices, the source explained that years of instability had forced them to adapt.
“I currently have a few which, due to a recurring problem over the years, has compelled me to develop a very mindful caution in use so as to never be without something in reserve,” the source said.
“Against sensible practice, I extend use to ensure my stress is minimised,” they added.
The DA’s statement also raised the issue of patients paying for their own supplies, saying a patient had been “forced to purchase his own stoma bags due to inconsistent supply.”
This point could not be fully corroborated by the source directly involved in the correspondence reviewed by this publication, who gave a different account when asked.
“I never purchased any stoma supplies. However, I did obtain some from a fellow resident some time ago,” the source said, adding that the fellow resident, who had since died, had been a stoma outpatient at Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital.
The department has not commented on whether it is aware of patients self-funding stoma supplies during the period in question.
A shortage with roots stretching back years
Correspondence reviewed by this publication indicated that the 2026 shortage was not an isolated event.
According to the source, stoma supplies at Tambo Memorial were issued through the hospital pharmacy in 2022.
“Approximately 18 months later, the ‘system’ of issuance was changed,” the source said, explaining that a separate stoma clinic was established to handle all outpatient matters aside from surgical issues.
“Why this occurred is still a mystery to me,” the source added.
The pattern of borrowing stock from neighbouring facilities also recurred across both periods.
In July 2026, a medical practitioner told a source that they had been issuing bags “borrowed from another hospital” for two weeks due to a lack of stock.
Weeks later, the source gave a similar account, saying that the limited stock available had “apparently” been borrowed from Pholosong Hospital.
The practitioner also claimed that the problem was not confined to Tambo Memorial.
“I hope they will do something because I heard Tembisa Hospital, Sebokeng Hospital were also facing same problem,” they said.
The source further confirmed that concerns were raised about the wider service. These concerns were addressed and sent to the hospital’s then acting chief executive, Dr Khulekani Shezi, in March 2026.
Questions over oversight of the private clinic model
Both the DA’s statement and the source’s account described stoma care at Tambo Memorial as being managed outside the hospital’s own pharmacy structures.
According to the source, hospital staff do not handle stoma matters. “No Tambo hospital staff interact with stoma outpatients directly,” the source said.
“The stoma clinic is staffed, operated and managed by a private sector nurse who is seconded to Tambo by the principal stoma products supplier.”
This description aligned with the DA’s statement, which said the same private supplier now contracted to address the shortage was also responsible, through a liaison coordinator, for deciding which patients received bags under the rationed allocation.
Neither the department’s statement nor its earlier responses addressed what oversight, if any, it exercised over this private-sector arrangement, or whether outsourcing both stock allocation and clinical liaison to the supplier itself was considered an appropriate safeguard.
