CEO opens Fort England can of worms
FORT England, the Eastern Cape’s premier psychiatric hospital which also houses some of the country’s most dangerous state patients, is in disarray, with management left in limbo and unruly staff frequently holding unprotected pickets and strikes.
This is the picture painted in court papers in which the hospital’s CEO Dr Roger Walsh is challenging a decision to move him to another senior position in Bhisho.
The court papers suggest a disgraceful capitulation by health department management in Bhisho to unlawful and sometimes violent behaviour of unionists at the hospital and a simultaneous refusal to back a hospital management that had cracked down on rampant absenteeism, employees who had refused to do their jobs, staff running businesses from the hospital premises, and generally poor patient care.
According to court papers, the Grahamstown-based hospital offers general psychiatric services and has a substance abuse treatment unit.
It houses 300 patients with mental health disorders, some of whom Walsh describes as “extremely distu and requiring constant supervision.
“Without provision of proper and highly professional mental health care services to patients at Fort England Hospital, there is a danger of violence, escapes and relapsing of psychosis among these patients going unnoticed,” said Walsh.
In a 60-page affidavit, Walsh sets out how some staff revolted at the new regimen and from 2014 reacted with a series of wildcat strikes, unlawful pickets and sometimes violent and intimidatory tactics, demanding that he be fired.
These tactics had compromised proper care of patients, some of whom were sometimes denied food.
Walsh attached to the court papers a paper trail showing how he had pleaded for proper support from Bhisho.
Instead, Bhisho appears to have mostly ignored the findings of an independent investigation it initiated by top labour analyst Advocate Amelia da Silva.
She largely exonerated management, in particular Walsh, of any wrongdoing. She found no evidence to support the unions’ allegations that Walsh was guilty of unlawful conduct or mismanagement.
Da Silva said management had enforced the various policies and applicable legislation in a strict and consistent manner and it was this strict enforcement that had caused a gradual breakdown in the relationship between management and the labour force.
The publication of her findings was met with more wildcat strikes and pickets, intimidation and union insistence that Walsh be removed. They accused him of authoritarian governance and a lack of consultation, something the independent investigation had found wholly untrue.
Bhisho management, including health superintendent-general Dr Thobile Mbengashe, agreed Walsh was not at fault, but said he should step down as CEO for the sake of stability.
He declined some plum incentives, including an offer as health economist based in Bhisho.
Finally, in July this year, Mbengashe wrote to him informing him that he was to be permanently transferred to Bhisho to head up forensic services there.
Walsh submitted in court papers that the decision to transfer him to Bhisho, more than 100km away, was unprocedural and unfair.
He wants the labour court in Port Elizabeth to review and set the decision aside.
“The decision to transfer me from my position, merely to avoid unlawful conduct and capitulate to unlawful demands from the unions demanding my removal, is in the light of the information before Mbengashe and health MEC Dr Phumza Dyantyi inexplicable and irrational.”
Walsh is asking the court to order that he be reinstated as CEO within 10 days if he succeeds in his move to set aside his transfer to Bhisho.
On Friday, health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said the department would oppose the application.
He said the department would not engage on the merits of the case before court but said the department would ensure continuity of care for all patients using mental health facilities.