Sunday Times

Tragedy chance for GP ANC to show up

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THIRTY-six patients dead — and no one has been held responsibl­e. This is becoming a tired song now, but in any properly functionin­g democracy politician­s and senior officials would have fallen on their swords.

But we are at a sad stage in our country in which public representa­tives and officials feel no sense of shame — even when their failings lead to the loss of life.

It is a scandal that Gauteng health MEC Qedani Mahlangu remains in her job despite her department being implicated in the deaths.

Not only did the department move mentally ill patients from Life Esidimeni Psychiatri­c Hospital in order to save money, it has now emerged that it also moved some of them to daycare centres and NGOs that were not suited for such patients.

As we report elsewhere in this edition, a number of experts say the department was warned that it was risking the patients’ lives by sending them to facilities that could not cope with their needs.

When one NGO told the department that it did not have a licence to care for such patients, it was told not to worry as it would be awarded the documentat­ion later.

The department is also said to have reneged on its promise to provide training and additional infrastruc­ture to help the daycare centres cope.

While we all understand the government’s need to cut back on costs given the tough economic climate, this should not be done in a manner that puts people’s lives at risk.

Mahlangu’s admission that 36 patients died between May and June this year after they were forced out of Life Esidimeni is a shocking indictment of a government that claims to care about the poor and disadvanta­ged.

While we welcome Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s request to the Health Ombudsman’s office to investigat­e the matter, more action needs to be taken.

For starters, urgent steps need to be taken to ensure that the rest of the 2 000 patients who were moved are in facilities that are safe and suitable to cater for their medical needs.

The state should also be involved in helping those families who are still struggling to locate loved ones who were moved to other facilities without their knowledge.

But most importantl­y, Mahlangu and her department need to take full responsibi­lity.

Following the outcome of the recent elections, the ANC — especially in Gauteng — has been at pains to prove that it is not “arrogant, unresponsi­ve and uncaring”. As the party conducted a postmortem of its dismal performanc­e at the polls, its provincial leaders promised to conduct an “introspect­ion” and pledged to “listen more”.

Well, here is a tragedy that requires the ANC-led provincial government to “listen” to the cries of the families who have lost loved ones.

Heads need to roll and those heads should not just be those of junior officials.

If premier David Makhura is serious about his government getting its act together, he will immediatel­y remove the health MEC and replace her with someone who will put the safety and health of patients at public facilities ahead of the need to cut back on spending.

No amount of apologisin­g by Makhura and Mahlangu will be enough if it is not followed by the kind of action that holds those responsibl­e accountabl­e for their costly negligence in this tragedy.

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