State failing health of its citizens
EVER wonder why the state is being sued by patients through lawyers, with the lawsuits running into billions of taxpayers’ rands?
Look at the poor and inferior medical treatment and botched operations being performed at state hospitals.
This is nothing short of criminality. In Europe and Asia, people lose their jobs in government and some even go to jails. This is criminal. Period. While you’re contemplating clamouring for Jacob Zuma to resign, think about how the chronic shortage of medical personnel like doctors and nurses is crippling KwaZuluNatal state healthcare facilities.
“Every day it gets worse‚“says South African Medical Association KwaZulu-Natal coastal branch head Mvuyisi Mzukwa.
A letter was written to the head of the association by Mzukwa on behalf of the province’s doctors.
He warns of a growing risk in medical legal cases due to the reduced level of care at short-staffed hospitals.
That letter details the tragic and parlous state of affairs.
There is only one oncologist in the whole of Durban and South Coast area.
The media failed to inform you that oncologists quit en masse due to broken equipment.
There is only one urologist in the whole region. This means that patients needing help with prostate cancer and kidney stones receive no treatment. It gets worse. There is a nine-month wait for an MRI scan for any Durban state patient.
Ultrasounds at St Aidan’s hospital have a six-month wait, so patients cannot have simple diseases or problems diagnosed.
The radiotherapy machines do not work at Addington hospital so cancer cannot be treated there.
There is a shortage of anaesthetists across the province, leading to delayed surgeries.
440 children who are diabetic are at risk of having no specialist supervise their complicated treatment as the two full-time paediatric endocrinologists have quit‚ leaving only one part-time specialist at Inkosi Albert Luthuli hospital.
The letter strikes a blow at government policy‚ saying the entire focus is on primary healthcare to the detriment of specialist services. Government policy is to spend money on clinics and nurses and improve the basic health system so that fewer people need specialist treatment.
The health department is in the sick bay, with a R3.2bn budget shortfall leaving 11.5% of jobs unfilled.
KwaZulu- Natal stopped training specialists in 2015, as it could not afford to pay the specialists in training (registrars) and only trained a few in 2016.
The letter details vacancies at every major Durban hospital. At least 15 hospitals are severely affected by staff cuts. This includes the biggest and most specialised hospitals in Durban, to which the most ill patients across the province are referred. The list includes Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital‚ King Edward VIII, Addington and Pietermaritizburg’s Grey’s Hospital, all specialist hospitals as well as smaller hospitals such as St Aidan’s‚ RK Khan‚ Stanger and McCord.
Doctors say staff are not replaced when they resign and registrars are no longer being trained, so they are not working in hospitals where they used to offer support to junior doctors.
Broken equipment is never repaired in the same financial year it breaks‚ said a doctor.
A company which won a tender worth R2.5 billion in 2015 to buy and maintain all hospital equipment for the province has not provided much.
Last month‚ the director-general of health in the province‚ Precious Matsoso‚ told Parliament that there were many vacancies across the country as the provincial departments of health could not afford to hire the doctors they needed. She warned of a growing number of lawsuits as patients did not get the care they needed because of the countrywide shortage of doctors. Matsoso said 12.5% of posts across the country were frozen or vacant with hospitals prevented from hiring more staff.
The department has not responded to questions about the Sama letter.
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and his KZN MEC must therefore not blame us lawyers when we take on cases and sue government for your tax rands.
So not only must Zuma go, but the entire government has to go.
Jazbhay is a labour lawyer, human resources practitioner and commissioner with the Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration