Tuesday, 19 March, 2024
HomeSA Provincial HealthDA barred from entering Bara during oversight visit

DA barred from entering Bara during oversight visit

The Democratic Alliance (DA), was barred from entering the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Diepkloof on Wednesday of last week when attempting to conduct an oversight inspection at the hospital, reports IoL.

The DA said it had consistently pointed out Home Affairs' failure to control illegal immigration and that this year the Gauteng taxpayer was in part footing the bill of healthcare for illegal immigrants, with one third of the province’s budget, R50bn, allocated to healthcare. "We know that this particular hospital is getting close to R3bn of that budget and you would know that this hospital also has quite a huge inflow of foreign nationals. What we wanted to find out here today was what is the actual impact," the DA's Gauteng premier candidate, Solly Msimanga, is quoted in the report as saying.

Msimanga said that it didn't help that the ANC talked about accountability and the steps that would be put in place to address this issue with its officials while on the ground it was not giving them direction. "We are being barred from speaking to stakeholders and that very much a concern of ours and we want to raise it," Msimanga said.

DA Shadow Health MEC for Gauteng, Jack Bloom said in the report: "What are they hiding? I think they should open up to us and be honest with us." Bloom said the DA wanted to know if money would be retrieved from embassies for treating foreign national patients.

 

The DA has released a statement on the Polity site saying it will be conducting oversight inspections to various satellite offices of the Northern Cape Health Department, including in Hartswater.

The DA said: “This comes after service providers have contacted us with complaints of serious corruption within the administration, specifically the abuse of supply chain management processes. Their complaints, which were raised with senior management members, have fallen on deaf ears and they are becoming desperate for their bills to be settled so their businesses can stay open.

“One service provider delivered goods, including foodstuffs, to the department’s offices in Hartswater during 2017. His bill, which amounts to slightly more than R100,000, is yet to be paid as of today. When he contacted the offices to ask about payment, he was told that the invoice will only be processed after he pays R10,000 into the personal bank account of a departmental official. Out of sheer desperation, he borrowed an amount of R4,000.

“But now his attempts to contact the official, her managers and other managers within the department, are all unsuccessful. They are not interested in settling the bill for goods which were delivered, because they are not getting their cut.”

[link url="https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/gauteng/chris-hani-baragwanath-management-bars-da-from-entering-hospital-19865587"]IoL report[/link]
[link url="http://www.polity.org.za/article/da-corruption-a-sore-that-continues-to-fester-in-health-department-2019-03-14"]Report on the Polity site[/link]

MedicalBrief — our free weekly e-newsletter

We'd appreciate as much information as possible, however only an email address is required.