The Cancer Alliance, represented by SECTION27, has filed a court application against the Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH) after it failed to spend the R784m allocated for treatment for cancer patients, putting thousands of lives at risk.
The money came from the Gauteng Treasury in 2023, and was intended to provide cancer patients with lifesaving treatment and clear the radiation and surgical backlogs in the province.
Daily Maverick reports that the organisations filed an application in the Gauteng High Court against the MEC for Health in Gauteng, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, nine other officials, and the GDoH. It will be heard on 23 July.
“Following the allocation of the funds, Cancer Alliance and SECTION27 met twice with Gauteng Health officials. At the last meeting on 2 June 2023, the GDoH committed to a plan to use the allocated funding to address the backlog in providing radiation oncology services,” the organisations and the Treatment Action Campaign said in a media statement.
“A key decision by Gauteng Health was to outsource the provision of radiation oncology services. The agreed-upon plan was for the GDoH to appoint a service provider by early August 2023. However, shortly after our June 2023 meeting, the GDoH abruptly ceased all communication with Cancer Alliance and SECTION27.”
The department’s lack of communication and action led to a protest march to GDoH headquarters in Johannesburg on 30 April 2023, at which the organisations handed over a memorandum and demanded that the funding be spent in terms of its allocation.
GDoH spokesperson Motalatale Modiba said the department acknowledged the delays in providing radiation treatment, which he attributed to the tender process to acquire new equipment, GroundUp reported.
Modiba said that it was in the department’s interest to address the backlog of patients needing treatment and that it would respond to concerns that the Cancer Alliance, Treatment Action Campaign, SECTION27 and cancer patients had raised, adding that the tender had been awarded.
Modiba promised that patients would start treatment in May – which some did.
Civil society seeks justice
“Despite being allocated R784m in 2023, specifically for addressing the backlog in radiation oncology and surgery, the GDoH has made no meaningful progress in providing radiation oncology treatment to patients on the backlog list,” read the statement from Cancer Alliance, Treatment Action Campaign and SECTION27.
The organisations said that after the protest and after months of no communication from the GDoH, the department had announced that it had apportioned R250m to procure planning services for the outsourcing of radiation and oncology services for one year.
That left R534m, which the GDoH claimed was intended for investment in oncology, medical and allied equipment, including the construction of a bunker to house a machine.
The civil society groups say the GDoH’s inaction does not bode well for the 3 000 patients awaiting lifesaving treatment.
“Cancer Alliance has been forced to bring an application to interdict the paying, disbursing and otherwise dealing with the R250m, and to ensure cancer patients on the backlog list urgently receive the radiation and oncology services to which they are constitutionally entitled, and for which Gauteng Treasury had already made financial provision,” they added.
The head of SECTION27’s health rights programme, Khanyisa Mapipa, said that in its list of motions, SECTION27 was asking the court to declare that the GDoH’s delay in providing radiation oncology treatment to the patients on the backlog list was unlawful and unconstitutional.
Additionally, they want the court to mandate the department to provide those services to the patients on the backlog list. They also want the court to interdict the department from paying the R250m that it has set aside to outsource the planning of the radiation oncology services.
“We’re saying … it is an unreasonable decision to award this amount of money simply for the planning. At the end of the day, nobody is going to be better off because nobody is going to get the treatment and what we’re after is the treatment,” said Mapipa.
She said the R534m earmarked to build bunkers and buy machinery would take years to finalise, to the detriment of patients.
Mapipa revealed that the GDoH had failed to file its answering papers to Cancer Alliance’s application by Tuesday’s filing deadline.
“SECTION27, Cancer Alliance and the Treatment Action Campaign call upon the GDoH to fulfil its constitutional obligation to provide these patients with access to cancer treatment,” the organisations said.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Activists march for unused R784m to be spent on cancer patients
Gauteng Health still mum on oncology tender
Gauteng partners with private sector to reduce cancer backlog
Cancer Alliance research: Gauteng state hospitals’ failures hamper treatment