Health services in large parts of the Northern Cape have virtually collapsed with communities mostly being served by overstretched nurses struggling to cope with the disease and injury burden. The challenges are overwhelming. Qualified doctors, specialists and professional nurses are as scarce as water in this arid province.
We travelled a circular route through the province and clocked up about 2,000 kilometres of mostly dirt and some tar road visiting doctors, healthcare workers, patients and some of the very few activists in the province. We passed through towns and small outposts, some just blip on the radar long past their heyday. Signposts hinting at suffering whizz by – Sweetfontein , Omdraaisvlei , Uitlvlug and so on.
There are also serious questions around the awarding of the aeromedical ambulance service contract in the Northern Cape which has gone to a company that, by all accounts, failed to conduct outreach services in the province when it had the previous contract. For many years such aeromedical outreach programmes were an effective way to get specialist care to various outposts in South Africa’s largest province.3.
Keimoes and Kakamas Community Health Centres are buildings posing as health facilities. When Spotlight visited the two health centres, they were being run by only a handful of nurses trying to hold the fort, basic medical supplies were out of stock, a long list of drugs were out of stock and some hospital board members were being accused of illegally receiving government tenders.
The DA in the province also expressed interest in commenting and said it had lots to say, but later indicated it was also busy preparing for the elections. How are admin clerks recruited and placed in clinics? Is this done in consultation with the facilities where they will be placed? Does the NCape DOH currently have a doctor or nurse employed in a facility with a track record of substance abuse? Including a criminal record?Has there been a circular to staff informing them of the name change of Kimberley Hospital to Robert Sobukwe Hospital? Please can you share it?How many EMS personnel are employed that are higher than BLS? Please give breakdown between ILS and ALS?
Please can you supply an update on the Psychiatric Hospital in Kimberley? When will it open, what the reason for the delay is, etc?Were the old De Aar hospital buildings gutted with the approval of the health department? If yes, who was the contract given to and how much was paid to the department?Is there a plan to clean up the medical waste still on the grounds at the old De Aar hospital?How much money is paid for security at this hospital?Please confirm that the casualty ward is run by...
No sympathy, they keep voting the criminals into power.
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