DA MPL Celeste Barker, who was barred from conducting an unannounced oversight visit at Komani Hospital on Thursday, is to demand action be taken against the officials who escorted her off the premises.
Barker was doing oversight visits to psychiatric hospitals around the Chris Hani region at the time.
However, health MEC Helen Sauls-August’s spokesman, Lwandile Sicwetsha, said the hospital staff were well within their rights when they prevented Barker’s visit.
“Even the portfolio committee makes arrangements when it does oversight visits to hospitals so that people can be prepared,” he said.However, Barker insisted there was no need to make an arrangement ahead of an oversight visit. “There are two types of visits: unannounced oversight visits and announced oversight visits. I was doing an unannounced oversight visit as it is the only way to get to the truth. If you tell them you are coming they will clean up and act as if everything is ok.”
Barker said last week she visited Tarkastad Hospital, Cradock Hospital and Michausdal clinic in Cradock.
“In all of them I was allowed to enter. It was only at the Komani Hospital where I was denied entry. I usually do unannounced visits because you get to see how they operate and these visits are genuine.”
Barker said she had never been inside Komani hospital and she wanted to see how it was and how they operated.“I met someone who claimed to be the CEO who did not allow us inside and ordered us to leave the hospital premises.
“We decided to go around the yard but there was a car that was escorting us around and we were not allowed to enter the buildings,” she said.
After taking few pictures they were aggressively forced out of the premises, she added. “The hospital looks like it used to be a nice hospital but it is not well taken care of. One can assume there are things that they wanted to hide from me, that is why they did not allow me to enter the wards,” Barker said, adding she would write to the MEC for answers on the conduct of the hospital staff.
“Among the problems I managed to see while going around the yard were the old neglected buildings and aged infrastructure which needs attention,” she said. — tembiles@dispatch.co.za..