Suspension notice for ‘food scandal’ hospital CEO
Health department plans to ditch tenders and deal directly with suppliers
The Eastern Cape health department has asked why Cala hospital CEO Lulamile Sizelo should not be placed on precautionary suspension after patients were given a meal of only white rice and vienna sausages at the weekend.
This was confirmed by health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo, who told the Dispatch on Thursday that Sizelo was given seven days to motivate why he should not be suspended.
Pictures of poor quality food served at Cala and Hewu hospitals went viral on social networks at the weekend.
Kupelo said they were taking action against Sizelo only as their preliminary investigation had cleared Hewu hospital of wrongdoing. Bhisho had sent a team of officials to investigate.
“We apologise that the quality of the food was not up to standard. There is no justification for the food that was served. The department has a policy where we always want to make sure that patients are served quality, nutritious food.
“We cannot just feed patients anything. We also always want that patients are given food in line with their illnesses.”
Sizelo could not be contacted at the time of writing.
Kupelo vowed they would crack down on any official who violated their food policy.
“There will be further investigation into the matter as we take the wellbeing of our patients very seriously.
“The department will ensure that those implicated are held to account,” he said.
To ensure that patients received quality food the department is planning to cut out the middleman. “We will review our suppliers and look at directly sourcing from butcheries, abattoirs and farmers for meat and vegetables.
“We are currently using the tender system and from time to time companies let us down.
“We are enforcing daily exception reports from every health establishment to ensure we pick up issues early to avoid extreme embarrassment to the people of the province.”