Political parties have slammed the findings of an oversight report exposing appalling conditions at health facilities in the Eastern Cape’s Buffalo City Metro and Chris Hani districts, where crumbling infrastructure, weak security and staff shortages are hampering service delivery and jeopardising patients’ lives.
The EFF said “buildings do not just collapse overnight”, and that the system “is at a point of no return”, while the DA said essential services at the facilities “are being stretched beyond breaking point”.
The Daily Dispatch reports that the report detailing the crisis was tabled (virtually) in the provincial legislature in Bhisho last week – after MPLs visited several health facilities in the two regions late last year, and which Health Portfolio Committee chair and ANC MPL Kholiswa Vimbayo described as operating under severe strain.
Apart from the ageing and deteriorating, she said security was also a major concern, with inadequate fencing, limited security staff and high crime rates compromising the safety of patients, staff and property.
MPLs visited the Empilweni Community Health Centre (CHC) in Gompo, Nontyatyambo CHC in Mdantsane, Amahleke Clinic in Dimbaza and the Greenfields, Qurhu, Potsdam and Mncotsho clinics, all in BCM.
In the Chris Hani district, oversight was conducted at the Elliot District Hospital, Elliot Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and Sifonondile Clinic in Cala.
Among the numerous problems, official listed leaking roofs, broken windows, shortage of essential medical equipment, faulty machinery, lack of a regular water supply, poor access for disabled patients, and pit latrines unsuitable for the sick, elderly and people with disabilities.
Facilities were overcrowded, with inadequate and insufficient consulting and waiting rooms, no designated storage areas for medical waste, and completely disorganised filing systems.
During the debate on the report, DA MPL Dr Jane Cowley said it was “yet another snapshot of the Department of Health’s ongoing failures in service delivery”.
“The challenges are not limited to the Chris Hani district and BCM regions, they repeat across every district in this province.”
She added that chronic staff shortages had become the norm. “From the Elliot District Hospital to clinics like Amahleke and Potsdam, essential services, including maternity, casualty, OPD (outpatient department) and support services like laundry and cleaning, are being stretched beyond breaking point.
“At Elliot Hospital, shortages have escalated to the point that clinical care is exposed to unacceptable levels of risk.
“At Nontyatyambo CHC, the absence of a facility manager and specialised nursing staff has created dangerous leadership gaps, leaving unqualified personnel to dispense medication.
“This is not a staffing challenge. It is a governance failure,” she said.
EFF MPL Nokuthula Mlokoti said the report “paints a picture of a health system that is not merely under strain, but at a point of no return, and whose failures have become dangerously normalised”.
“No clinic or hospital can function where dignity, hygiene and safety are compromised,” she said.
“Buildings do not collapse overnight. They collapse because maintenance plans are ignored, budgets are underspent and responsibility is avoided.”
Mlokoti criticised the report for failing to spell out the consequences if officials did not act on its findings.
“It does not set deadlines. It does not propose sanctions. It does not escalate persistent failures.
“Without deadlines, without consequences, and without enforceable resolutions, this report will follow the same path as many before it, being noted, filed, forgotten.”
ANC MPL Sweetness Mbonyana defended the oversight process, saying it demonstrated democracy in action, that “healthcare transformation in the province is ongoing and rooted in the ANC’s post-1994 reforms”.
Acting Health MEC Sibulele Ngongo’s response to the report was cut short when connection problems disrupted the virtual meeting, rendering her presentation inaudible before legislature Speaker Helen Sauls-August intervened.
Daily Dispatch article – Patients in jeopardy at crumbling, understaffed clinics (Restricted access)
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