Cost of Saving
| How Gauteng health department went on deathly drive to slash care bill for hundreds of patients
THE Gauteng health department roped in daycare centres and organisations with little or no experience in dealing with the mentally ill, to accommodate hundreds of patients it moved out of Life Esidimeni Psychiatric Hospital in Randfontein — all to save money.
Experts this week accused health MEC Qedani Mahlangu of ignoring warnings that NGOs did not have the capacity to care for the mentally ill, who were moved without their files.
Their criticism came after the department confirmed that 36 of the relocated patients had died since being moved.
One of the NGOs said it was told by health officials not to worry about not having a licence to care for the mentally ill, as the organisation could get one later.
Dianne Noyile, who runs Siyabadinga, a daycare NGO, said health department officials approached her in January.
“They told us they were under pressure to remove people at Esidimeni and wanted us to run our centre from Cullinan Hospital in Pretoria,” she said.
The department promised to provide training, contracts, beds and professional staff to assist, said Noyile.
“When we said we did not have a licence to care for psychiatric patients, they told us this was not a problem and they would issue one three months after we had begun the work.
“We have not received a cent from the department. We cared for three patients for three weeks. They did not have files. We didn’t even know their names. We couldn’t track down their families and we didn’t know what medication they were on,” said Noyile.
However, Life Hospital said in a statement that all patients were released with their files. BEREAVED: Lucas Mogwerane’s brother, Christopher, died at Rebafenyi near Midrand
After raising concerns with health officials, the NGO was told to leave the premises, and the department has since instituted legal action against it for operating without a licence.
Almost 2 000 psychiatric and mentally disabled patients were affected by the health department’s move to find alternative accommodation.
The department’s monthly bill went from R10 000 per patient to about R3 000 on average — at a deadly cost.
The extent of the damage was laid bare this week, when Mahlangu admitted, in a reply to a question from DA MPL Jack Bloom, that 36 patients had died since being moved between May and June.
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has asked for an investigation by Health Ombudsman Malegapuru Makgoba — but families, the South African Depression and Anxiety Group and public interest law centre Section 27 say they are worried about the surviving patients.
Sadag spokeswoman Cassey Chambers is helping three family members track down their loved ones because they do not know where they were placed and last saw them at Esidimeni in June.
She said the organisation had been inundated with calls from families concerned about the safety of their loved ones.
“If we don’t know [at] which NGOs patients died . . . we don’t know if patients are safe. We need the list of NGOs [at] which people died,” she said.
She also said Mahlangu had been warned for months by family members, in court, by psychiatrists and by NGOs that sending chronically ill and unstable patients into unsuitable NGOs would lead to disaster.
Lucas Mogwerane, whose brother, Christopher, 56, died in July at Rebafenyi care centre near Midrand, said the department was to blame.
He said: “We held meetings with the MEC, begging them not to close Esidimeni. We even offered to assist financially.”
Christopher, a schizophrenic, was found dead in a toilet one morning. “People suspect he fell during the night but no one knew when it happened. This left us wondering if the centre had people looking after patients at night,” Lucas said. FACES OF A TRAGEDY: Alfred Sithole, left, Thabo Monyane, Christopher Mogwerane and Kgotso David Mpofu all died after being taken out of Life Esidimeni Psychiatric Hospital despite pleas that they remain at the facility