Eastern Cape Health has been ordered by the provincial legislature to fill the vacancies of 307 frontline healthcare workers who died from COVID-19 in the first two waves “as a matter of urgency”.
Daily Despatch repots that last week, health portfolio committee chair and ANC MPL Mxolisi Dimaza said the posts had to be filled to stabilise the overstretched burden of care placed on employees. Filling the posts would be an act of “proper management”, he said.
A, adopted unanimously by all parties, paints a frightening picture of a poorly run department and blames top management for the crisis in the ailing healthcare system, writes Daily Despatch. “In a revealing list of flaws, the report accuses health officials of consuming the lion’s share of salaries at the expense of care workers and other employees further down the chain.”
“It shines a harsh light on supply chain failures caused largely by procurement processes being flouted, an exodus of skilled medical personnel, the noxious effect of a ‘counterproductive environment’ in hospitals, clinics and government offices, and incompetence, especially in human resources.”
Dimaza said: “It seems to us, as the committee, that people there do as they please and are undermining the person who is acting as head of department (Dr Sibongile Zungu)." He blamed a weak organisational culture for the unhealthy operational conditions in the health system.
Dimaza said the department had not filled vacant leadership positions in several hospitals, while there were also “elements of incapacity” among its human resources personnel.
Dimaza said that even though these posts were already funded, “the department is notorious for taking money meant for human resources and diverting it to pay escalating medico-legal claims”.
Full Daily Despatch report (Restricted access)