Department’s response to health crisis ‘falls far short’

AN EASTERN Cape health coalition has slated the health department’s response to its memorandum calling for a plan to address the health crisis in the province.

The Eastern Cape Health Crisis Action Coalition told a parliamentary standing committee on health yesterday that the department’s five-page response, submitted six days after its deadline, was woefully inadequate given the severity of the crisis.

The health department’s response, submitted on October 17, despite an October 11 deadline, reads, in part, that:

The Mthatha Depot would be converted into a control tower, and serve as a warehouse for drugs and supplies in transit to clinics and hospitals;

The national department would provide equipment for all health facilities in the O R Tambo District and the provincial department will procure equipment for other facilities in the province through a “revitalisation grant”;

Urgent repair in facilities would be prioritised, and current infrastructure would be revitalised; and

Healthcare professionals would be recruited and retained, outstanding accruals paid, and pay notches fixed.

These are a few of the plans outlined in the department’s response, signed by superintendentgeneral Dr Thobile Mbengashe and MEC Sicelo Gqobana last month. There were no time-frames.

In their analysis of this response, the coalition yesterday gave the provincial department a deadline of November 19 to answer questions, clarify the process of developing and implementing a plan going forward, and come up with a plan on how they will engage the coalition.

“We note that the . . . document is not remotely what the Constitution and the coalition require in terms of a plan to address the health crisis in the province.

“We are surprised, for example, that the has provided a five-page document ostensibly to serve this function. The document is for the most part a list of vague goals, many of them simply repetitions of legal obligations already of the department,” the coalition told the standing committee.

“Our desire is to allow the its due discretion in developing the details of this plan. Nonetheless, we cannot ignore that the document it has tabled falls far short of what the law requires,” it said.

The coalition listed concerns arising from the response as:

Lack of time-frames, indicators, monitoring and evaluation;

The need for short, medium and long-term interventions;

The need for clarity on the status of the document – whether it was final, who helped put it together, were among concerns;

The need to prioritise service delivery; and

That the department was selfcontradictory in its plans for the Mthatha depot. —