An Eastern Cape hospital selected for NHI implementation has been found to be in dire straits with more than 200 vacancies.
During an oversight visit to the Cecilia Makiwane Hospital in Mdantsane, near East London, Eastern Cape provincial MPs found several shortcomings.
News24 reports that the 586-bed regional hospital serves the greater Buffalo City and Amathole district areas including referrals from nearby hospitals like Nompumelelo (Peddie), Bhisho, Grey, SS Gida, Victoria, Fort Beaufort, Adelaide, Bedford and Stutterheim, but CEO Sicelo Msi said 223 posts were unfilled.
Included in these vacancies were 53 posts for professional nurses, 38 for medical officers and 12 for medical specialists, all resulting in a backlog of surgical, cataract and radiology procedures, and compromising service delivery.
The pharmacy also always had long waiting times because of the staff shortages, he added.
Msi slammed the budget for maintenance of life support machines as inadequate, saying that the equipment required constant service but there wasn’t enough money for repairs, and that the hospital had suffered financial losses amounting to millions of rands due to medico-legal claims – mostly from the maternity ward, followed by general surgery.
He said requests for information, through the Promotion of Access to Information Act, stood at 1 158 while total liability claims were at 681.
He added that the facility faced a potential financial risk exposure of R2.59bn if the claims were successful.
Despite all of this, the hospital had been selected for the implementation of the NHI because it was “compliant”, he said.
ANC member of the provincial legislature Virginia Camealio-Benjamin, who chaired a session during the visit, said vacancies were a problem at most public hospitals in the province, and that “the critical issue of vacant posts, especially at facilities earmarked to implement the NHI”, would “be dealt with urgently”.
News24 article – CEO paints bleak picture of Eastern Cape hospital earmarked for NHI implementation
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