The Inkatha Freedom Party in KwaZulu-Natal is appalled by the cold-hearted response by the MEC for Health in the province, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo after a young child’s leg broke when an x-ray machine collapsed on her.
“Here we have a young child who has been injured and left traumatised. We had called upon the MEC to have an assessment done of critical hospital equipment with a view of preventing such incidents in the future. We are appalled that the MEC responds by saying that : “There’s nothing that tells me that I must stop everything now and start investigating all the equipment in 79 hospitals, each and every equipment”.
This shows that the MEC does not care about the health and well-being of our people. We did not ask him to personally inspect the equipment at all 79 hospitals in the province! Surely, if he cared at all, he could have requested the Head of Department to obtain an assessment from the management at the hospitals. Such an exercise should not take more than a few days since there are hospital managers and other line-function managers who should have such critical information on hand,” said Mrs Ncamisile Nkwanyana MPL, IFP KZN Provincial Spokesperson on Health.
“Such a callous response from the MEC only goes to show that he is not prepared to apply his mind to the suffering of patients and the difficult working conditions at our hospitals. By saying that incidents of malfunctioning hospital equipment have not been heard of in the past 20 years, the MEC is admitting that he has forgotten that in September 2012 all provincial hospitals were battling to get clean operating theatre linen because the provincial health department’s largest laundry at Sea Cow Lake in Durban had broken down, in May 2013 Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) reported two machines for cancer patients at Addington Hospital were broken, and even this year CT scanners were broken. The MEC conveniently forgets that there were problems with radiation treatment machines at Durban’s Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital which is supposed to be a state of the art hospital. MEC Dhlomo must stop playing games with peoples’ lives and take his job seriously”, concluded Mrs Ncamisile Nkwanyana.
Issue by:
Mrs Ncamisile Nkwanyana
IFP KZN Provincial Spokesperson on Health
078 302 3991