Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu resigned, hours before the release of the Health Ombudsman's report, while the head of Gauteng Health and other senior officials implicated the deaths of 94 psychiatric patients, will face disciplinary action,
Business Day reports that Gauteng Premier David Makhura said: “I have instructed the director-general in the office of the premier to urgently institute appropriate action to deal with the recommendations for the Ombudsman,” Makhura said. “There can be no passing of the buck.”
The premier is quoted in the report as saying he would urgently implement all recommendations made by the ombudsman. In the meantime, all patients currently placed at NGOs would be transferred back to public healthcare facilities and state-owned institutions so that their specialised needs were catered for. This would happen in the next seven days and be concluded in 45 days.
The report said Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu resigned on Tuesday night ahead of the official release of the report. Makhura said he had accepted her resignation.
“Like all members of our provincial executive council, she fully understands that if something goes profoundly wrong in your area of responsibility and executive authority, you have to take direct accountability and not pass the buck to junior officials,” he said.
Former national health minister Gwen Ramokgopa will replace Mahlangu, the report said. In the meantime social development MEC Nandi Mayathula-Khoza would act as Health MEC.
Mahlangu must still be held accountable for the "disgraceful‚ unprofessional‚ and inhumane way" she handled the treatment of state psychiatric patients‚ despite her resignation‚ doctors say.
"The findings by Health Ombudsman Professor Malegapuru Makgoba on the deaths of 94 psychiatric patients in Gauteng last year are extremely disturbing‚ and concerning‚" the South African Medical Association (SAMA) is quoted in a report in The Times as saying.
Dr Mzukisi Grootboom‚ chair of SAMA‚ said: "The disgraceful‚ unprofessional‚ and inhumane way the MEC dealt with this situation warranted nothing less than her removal. However‚ we believe‚ now that the Ombudsman’s report is out‚ further investigations are needed to not only finally deal with the actions of the former MEC but also those officials associated with the transfers".
"Former MEC Mahlangu cannot simply resign and walk away from this. She‚ and other officials in the department‚ have to be held accountable.
"What happened with these patients is a national tragedy on a massive scale and everything must be done to prevent something similar from happening again‚" said Grootboom.
According to the report, SAMA noted that the Ombudsman’s report stated officials had acted negligently in moving the patients. While it welcomed the Premier’s statement that he views the improper and negligent actions of officials in a serious light‚ the medical association said that "must lead to serious consequences and accountability".
"Our thoughts now must be with the families of those who died. This must be an extremely difficult time for them. To prolong‚ or delay‚ any action against the MEC‚ and other officials involved in this disaster‚ will‚ quite frankly‚ only make their suffering worse.
"The Premier needs to ensure that this action is swift‚ and meaningful‚ not only for the sake of those involved‚ but for the thousands of other mentally ill patients throughout the country‚" said Grootboom.
The report said SAMA has also welcomed the decision by the Premier to move all patients currently placed in NGOs back to public healthcare. "This is an important step by the Premier because it sends the dual message that is important to care properly for mentally patients‚ and that the province is willing to fund their continued proper treatment. This‚ in our opinion‚ should have been the thinking from the start instead of looking at moving mentally ill patients to save money."
Mahlangu faces a class action lawsuit by the families of the psychiatric patients who died, reports Business Day. Makgoba’s report into the scandal, which has shocked the country, found that Mahlangu’s cost-cutting exercise to move the patients from Life Esidimeni had been expensive and deadly, the report says. Only one patient died from mental illness-related causes, while the others died of dehydration, starvation, diarrhoea and epilepsy.
Opposition parties have called for Mahlangu and Makhura to be charged for the patients’ "massacre", because it had been as a result of "their incompetence". Makgoba has recommended legal action in a report hailed as unprecedented in naming and shaming officials.
Lucas Mogwerane, whose relative was among the dead, said the government should account for the loss of lives. "The MEC’s resignation, should not be the end of the road. We are looking at all options, our partners will advise. But law enforcement should take place," he is quoted in the report as saying.
The Office of the Health Ombudsman is empowered to investigate the public and private healthcare sectors, but it is up to the minister of health to implement its findings. Although the DA and EFF called for Makhura’s resignation, the Gauteng premier, who was also in Pretoria when the report was made public, said the report did not recommend this. "If I was responsible, I would have resigned long before the report was completed," he said.
The health ombudsman’s report found that it had cost the Gauteng government R320 per patient a day at Life Esidimeni. But the province forked out between R1,300 and R2,000 at Weskoppies and Sterkfontein hospitals.
The report said the 27 NGOs did not have the necessary licences to offer adequate, specialised care for the patients they took in. Their staff, the report stated, were also unqualified. Makgoba has ordered that the remaining psychiatric patients be transferred back to public healthcare facilities.
Section 27 executive director Mark Heywood, who works with the affected families and the South African Mental Health Federation, is quoted in the report as saying that some of the families felt partial closure, but many felt justice still needed to be done. He hailed the report as unprecedented because it was the first time in SA that a report linked officials to "a crime".
He said Section 27 would continue to push for inquests into the deaths, while awaiting instruction from those affected on how to proceed legally.
Christine Nxumalo – whose sister died at the Precious Angels NGO – was furious about Mahlangu’s resignation, describing it as a "cowardly act".
Mahlangu said she regrets the loss of lives following the transfer of the patients from Life Esidimeni Centre to non-government organisations. According to a Polity report, Mahlangu said she requested the investigation by the Health Ombudsman last year after patients died at the NGOs, and that the investigation did not find any wrongdoing on her part.
“Whereas the Health Ombud has not found any culpability on my part for the unfortunate loss of lives by the patients; accepting that the de-institutionalisation of mental health patients is a sound and internationally recognised programme, I want to reiterate my regret at the loss of lives associated with the transfer of patients from Life Esidimeni to the various NGOs and extend my condolences to the bereaved families,” she said.
“I support every initiative intended to assist and support the families.” The deaths occurred under her leadership as health MEC and she therefor took political accountability as the final authority in the department, she said.
“For that reason, it is apposite that I tendered my resignation as the MEC for Health, Gauteng. I wish to express my gratitude to the Health professionals and managers in the department who I have been privileged to work with, whose professional advice, I, at all material times, respected and accepted. I thus wish them well and hope they continue to serve the people of Gauteng with diligence and devotion.”
But, the report said, Makgoba told reporters: “On the 13th of September (2016) when the MEC (Mahlangu) made her announcement that 36 patients had died, actually it was 77 patients who had already died by that date. Why she didn’t know that information, I cannot answer but the patients had already died because their dates of death are recorded. The public needs to ask why she didn’t know.”
[link url="http://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/health/2017-02-01-qedani-mahlangu-quits-over-psychiatric-patient-deaths/"]Business Day report[/link]
[link url="http://www.businesslive.co.za/rdm/politics/2017-02-01-i-deeply-regret-the-tragic-loss-of-so-many-lives—david-makhuras-full-statement/"]David Makhura’s full statement[/link]
[link url="http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2017/02/01/MEC-Mahlangu-cannot-simply-resign-and-walk-away-from-this-Medical-fraternity-on-mental-patients-deaths"]The Times report[/link]
[link url="http://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/health/2017-02-02-families-to-sue-qedani–mahlangu/"]Business Day report[/link]
[link url="http://www.polity.org.za/article/former-health-mec-regrets-patients-deaths-2017-02-01"]Polity report[/link]