Frere Hospital: 30 months later, the same ANC councillor is still running the show
Two and a half years after Frere Hospital's horror baby death statistics shocked South Africa, the same unqualified hospital manager - who was previously an ANC councillor - remains in charge, and during oversight visits to the hospital, medical staff have informed me that chronic bed and equipment shortages continue to hamper the standard of care afforded to patients.
While the ANC wants to spend billions of rands on a National Health Insurance scheme, it refuses to tackle the real problems in our healthcare system - like the deployment of unqualified ANC cadres, like Luvuyo Mosana, into hospital management posts.
Luvuyo Mosana ought to have been held accountable after the baby deaths debacle, and for his role in attempting to cover up that incident, but instead the ANC fired Dr Nokuzola Ntshona, a medical superintendent who had been a key whistleblower in the affair.
Staff have told me that patients stay in casualty for up to three days because of a lack of space in wards and that some patients are kept in hospital for longer than necessary due to endless breakdowns in communication between staff and management. They also report crippling shortages of basic supplies as well as proper and working hospital equipment.
The buck ought to stop with the hospital manager. But the fact of the matter is that Frere Hospital continues to fail because, rather than appointing a suitably qualified hospital manager, an ANC cadre still runs the show. At the time he was appointed it was pointed out that he had absolutely no qualifications in administration, and under his leadership the hospital continues to be plagued by inefficiencies and appalling shortages. Yet he remains employed - another classic case of ANC cadre deployment actively stifling the provision of services in South Africa.
Conditions at Frere Hospital made headlines in 2007 after it came to light that hundreds of newborn babies were dying every year in the hospital's overburdened maternity section - many because of negligence. At the same time, it was found that over the 14 preceding years, 2 000 babies were stillborn at the hospital and almost 200 were delivered stillborn in one year alone.
The Health Department needs to conduct a full investigation into the hospital's poor management record. We again reiterate our call for Mosana to be removed from the position of CEO of the East London Hospital Complex (which incorporates Frere and Cecilia Makiwane Hospitals), a post for which he is completely ill-qualified.
Statement issued by Mike Waters, MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of health, January 24 2010
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