‘Honour mental health victims with new hospital’

THE families of 144 mental health patients who died while in the care of the Gauteng provincial government want the government to build a memorial hospital in their honour.

They are adamant that they do not want a memorial stone that would cost more than a million rand, but a fully-fledged building that would look after the medical needs of mental health patients.

The families’ wishes were articulated by one of the affected family members, Christine Nxumalo, during a press briefing yesterday about the families’ and Section27’s preparation for a formal inquest hearing into the death of 144 patients while in the care of bogus health-care centres.

The tragedy unfolded in June 2015 when the Gauteng Health Department terminated a contract with Life Esidimeni Healthcare Centre, which looked after more than 2 000 mental health patients, due to alleged budgetary constraints. Civil society organisations such as Section27, the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) as well as several others made various attempts to block Gauteng Health from terminating the contracts, fearing for the patients’ well-being.

Court applications were also lodged, but the Gauteng provincial Health Department went ahead with its relocation to centres which, according to the findings of Health Ombudsman Dr Malegapuru Makgoba, and later the dispute arbitration by retired Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, did not have the requisite medical certificates or permits to look after mental health patients.

Justice Moseneke ordered the Gauteng government to compensate the victims and survivors of the ordeal.

The findings came after Justice Moseneke heard gruelling evidence of how these families, on their own, had discovered the bodies of their loved ones in mortuaries and hospitals in various parts of Pretoria and surrounding areas.

Two of the 144 patients were buried as paupers, as the whereabouts of their remains are unknown five years after the tragedy.

Nxumalo yesterday told the media the families had compiled a petition to lobby the government to erect a memorial hospital for mental health patients, similar to the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in Parktown.

“We do not want the story of our family members to die. We want the government to build a memorial hospital for them. A hospital similar to the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital.

“We want mental health-care patients to know that justice is also available for them. We certainly do not want a memorial stone that will cost more than a million rand. We want a place where these mental health-care patients will be treated and cared for,” Nxumalo said.

She added they had held such discussions with the Gauteng government, which promised to build early mental health-care detection centres in all five regions of the province.”

She was speaking before the inquest hearing into their deaths, scheduled for Monday in the North Gauteng High Court, Pretoria.

Nxumalo said the families were seeking closure.