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The Democratic Alliance is calling on the national government to place the dysfunctional Eastern Cape Department of Health under immediate administration, to prevent its imminent collapse and the loss of lives in the wake of the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The financial status of the Eastern Cape Department of Health (EC DoE) is no longer sustainable and the collapse of the entire department is inevitable.

Contingent liability, made up almost entirely of medico-legal claims against the Department, has soared beyond R37 billion, while accruals of R4,06 billion from the previous financial year have drained the Goods and Services budget almost dry.

My colleague Retief Odendaal, the Eastern Cape Shadow MEC for Finance, and I have repeatedly called for the Department to draw up a time-bound Financial Recovery Plan, with input from Provincial and National Treasury, to curb irregular expenditure and reduce the cost of a bloated administration.

Instead, the Provincial Cost Containment Committee opts to leave critical vacant funded medical posts unfilled, while continuing to create and fill unnecessary administrative posts for cadres who are not suitably qualified for the work at hand.

This tactic has left most hospitals and clinics desperately short of medical personnel, which has compromised quality of care and in turn, has cost our province many lives.

In March of this year, specialist vacancy rates at Frere and Livingstone Hospitals stood at 65,6% and 44,8% respectively. In May, Medical Officer vacancy rates at Dora Nginza Mental Health Unit and Fort England Hospital stood at 50% and 60% respectively. (See responses here, here and here).

While delinquent directors and millionaire managers live the VIP life, mental health patients are left to live or die on the streets because there are no beds or psychiatrists to care for them. They die because the department does not employ enough medical personnel.

Newborns in Dora Nginza Neonatal Unit are dying because there are not enough specialist ICU nurses to care for them. In such intensive care units, the ratio of nurses to babies should be 1:2 at the most, but instead one nurse cares for more than twenty newborns.

In rural areas, patients die while waiting for an ambulance. Instead of the 650 ambulances required for our population as per national norms, we have half of that in working condition.

The Government Fleet Management Services do not prioritise the repair of emergency vehicles as they are owed a fortune by the Department of Health.

Last year, while departmental cadres and friends jumped on the gravy train to distribute Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for huge profit, healthcare workers were given inferior PPE and many of them succumbed to the Covid-19 virus as a result. The Eastern Cape Province holds the shameful record of accounting for almost half the national total of Healthcare worker deaths to Covid-19 as a result.

In the DA-led Western Cape, Compensation of Employees accounts for 57% of the Health budget, while Goods and Services receive 33,6% of the Health budget. Goods & Services budgets pay for medical equipment, theatre equipment, Oxygen, medication, food, linen and security.

In the Eastern Cape, Compensation of Employees accounts for 80% of the budget. Non-medical staff suck up 20% of this, which equates to R3,4 billion, while Goods and Services receive just 7% of the budget, which equates to a pathetic R1,56 billion. (See attached response).

This Goods and Services budget will be depleted by the end of July which coincides with the predicted peak of the third wave of Covid-19 in the province. Who will pay for oxygen then? The department cannot rob Peter to pay Paul. Peter is broke.

I have written to the acting Minister of Health, Hon Kubayi-Ngubane, urging that national government place the Eastern Cape Department of Health under administration in accordance with Section 100 (1) (b) (i) of the Constitution, to ensure that established minimum standards for rendering health services in the province are maintained.

This incapable state has cost us the highest price of all – that of human life. Only a capable state, such as the DA-led Western Cape, can offer effective healthcare services that save lives instead of destroying them. Where we govern we get the job done.

Issued by The DA