Cllr Vuyisile Schoeman

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Media Statement
Jane Cowley
Issued by: Jane Cowley (MPL)
Shadow MEC for Health.

Thursday, 10 August 2023.

Dear Schoeman

Note to editors: You can download a sound clip in English from Jane Cowley MPL

ECDoH asset seizure comes as no surprise at all

Last week, the Eastern Cape Department of Health was caught off guard when the Sherriff’s Office seized Provincial Hospital assets.

Provincial Hospital, Livingstone, and others have had their operational budgets severely slashed by the Department. To continue offering services, these hospitals have accumulated substantial debts to suppliers and service providers, which they simply cannot afford to pay.

In response to a parliamentary question, the Head of the Department, Rolene Wagner, acknowledged that at the beginning of the new financial year in April, pharmaceutical companies, medical implants and equipment suppliers, as well as providers of oxygen and anaesthetic gases, were collectively owed more than R970 million.

This comprised only a small percentage of their accruals, which amounted to R4,7 billion. This means that nearly 17% of this year’s R28.8 billion health budget allocation should be going to pay off debt from previous years. No wonder the sheriff is knocking on their door!

Several small and medium suppliers have cut their losses. Some have been forced to close their doors. Bigger companies have adopted a zero-tolerance approach to carrying this outstanding debt, in some cases for years, and are now taking action.

Last month Afrox publicly threatened to stop supplying the department with oxygen and other gases if their account was not settled.

I have written to the Minister of Health, Dr Joe Paahla, to highlight the catastrophic impact of this poor fiscal management and maladministration on the most vulnerable in society, the patients who depend on this department for their health and wellbeing.

I shall further request that both the Provincial and National Treasury put practical and achievable plans in place to settle the accruals and payables so that suppliers can continue to do business with hospitals and avoid asset seizures.

While the government preaches intergovernmental cooperation and sister departments working collectively, the Provincial Treasury Department has been noticeably absent in assisting the department in settling accruals, despite them being complicit in poor decisions that allowed medico-legal claims to spiral out of control in the first place.

This is another stark example of how poor governance, fiscal maladministration, and a glaring lack of consequence management impact directly on the welfare of our citizens, who cannot access medical treatment at Provincial until this debacle is resolved.

In the DA–led Western Cape, medico-legal claims against the department are managed effectively and continuously so that budgets to hospitals are not impacted, and healthcare services continue as usual.

This is the DA difference, which is why the Western Cape is the only province to have already achieved universal healthcare.


For further information
Jane Cowley, MPL on 072 903 5038


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