2-week plan to fix KZN Health crisis

THE prescription to heal the “gross lack of management” within the ailing KZN Health Department is a skills and human resources assessment – with no officials facing action.

This intervention, said national Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi yesterday, would “sort out the problems of KZN”.

This comes after a litany of problems was made public by patients and the medical unions about the crisis in the KZN Health Department, most recently resulting in all state-employed oncologists resigning.

The SA Human Rights Commission recently released a report into the state of oncology in KZN and found that the department violated the rights of oncology patients at the Addington and Inkosi Albert Luthuli hospitals to have access to health care services, as a result of the department’s failure to comply with its own policies.

Speaking at a media briefing at Albert Luthuli Hospital yesterday, Motsoaledi delivered a short plan of action which would, he hoped, after two weeks give an idea of what would happen next within the department, which he labelled as “grossly mismanaged”.

Beleaguered KZN Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo sat in stony silence.

“Even if we bring two brand new machines to treat cancer at Addington Hospital, the crisis won’t be resolved. There is a gross lack of management skills in the department. The supply chain and procurement systems management needs skills. It’s found wanting better management,” said Motsoaledi.

He said managers simply had “no skill or inclination to put up programmes of work” within their departments.

During strike action earlier this year by members of the SA Medical Association (Sama), doctors complained that the procurement department was not functional, as necessities such as protective gloves to carry out their work were not supplied timeously.

“The national Health Department, together with the KZN Treasury Department, will be taking over the functions of procurement for now, until the situation is stabilised. The Treasury Department has already commissioned a forensic audit into the procurement processes and will make recommendations,” said Motsoaledi.

The human resources assessment, he said, would indicate whether the department needed more specialists, registrars, porters or clerks.

“A team will be looking at what we need. After two weeks we will know. Financial management and maintenance infrastructure are also our concerns.

KZN Premier Willies Mchunu said they would deal with officials if it was found that their responsibilities were not properly executed, evading the question of whether Dhlomo would be fired.

KZN Sama chairman, Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa, said assessing the skills component and the needs of the department would not solve the problem.

“When a manager is not effective in work, the department does not sort it out, they merely push that person into a position at another hospital. In one case, at King Edward, a clerk was running the whole hospital simply because of being a member of a certain political party. This is poor management and leadership. The department created the problems when they froze positions.”