The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has launched an investigation into the halting of treatment for cancer patients in Eastern Cape hospitals, after the provincial Health Department failed to pay suppliers for chemotherapy drugs.
According to Dr Eileen Carter from the SAHRC, the DA had laid a complaint because desperate doctors are being forced to make decisions about who receives chemotherapy and who does not, with some oncology units having only a single vial of the potentially life-saving treatment left.
Although Health MEC Ntandokazi Capa has promised that outstanding bills would be paid immediately, patients have already been turned away and treatments halted.
Staff told Daily Maverick that as their urgent emails went unanswered, they spent Sunday frantically trying to borrow, exchange or buy chemotherapy medication from private pharmacists to avoid interrupting treatment for their patients.
“We have opened an SAHRC investigation …and it will now be undertaken as per our complaints handling processes,” Carter said.
“This is no longer a cash flow problem. It is a gross violation of human rights,” said the DA’s provincial spokesperson for health Jane Cowley.
“How does one tell the mother of a 14-year-old boy that his treatment cannot continue because the department’s non-payment has led the supplier to close their account? How does a doctor respond to a heartfelt letter from a 33-year-old woman, diagnosed with a curable form of Hodgkin lymphoma, who is begging for treatment so she can raise her three-year-old child?
Impossible choices
“These are the impossible choices our healthcare workers are forced to face daily. Meanwhile, senior officials sit comfortably in air-conditioned offices, use state-owned vehicles for private errands and continue to protect a bloated payroll of politically connected individuals in non-essential posts,” said Cowley.
Eastern Cape Health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo acknowledged problems in the sector, including the lack of permanent CEOs at Livingstone and Port Elizabeth provincial hospitals in Gqeberha.
“But we are conducting interviews now,” he said.
The hospitals last had permanent CEOs in 2018, when unions ran the management teams out of the facilities.
Kupelo said the MEC had stepped in to ensure that R200m was set aside for specialist medicines, including cancer treatment.
“Of this allocation, R43m will go towards paying pharmaceutical companies for cancer medicines that were owed from the last financial year. This payment is expected to be effected this week.
“Availability of all categories of essential medicines … is a priority, and every year, the department budgets more than R2bn for this purpose.”
He said cancer patients were receiving their treatment even though alternative medication had to be administered in some cases.
“The department is expecting additional stock from Adcock Health, Fresenius (Kabi), Kiara and Macleods this week,” he added.
Two chief directors had been assigned to Gqeberha to accelerate service delivery at Livingstone and Dora Nginza hospitals.
“The MEC gave a clear message to her management. She was there. She has given them until month-end to implement the decisions they have taken,” said Kupelo.
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