UNPAID COMPANY STOPS SERVICING CT SCANNER AT HELEN JOSEPH HOSPITAL

Philips Medical Systems has stopped servicing the CT Scanner at the Helen Joseph Hospital in west Johannesburg because it has not been paid for 18 months. They are owed about R3 million.

I discovered this when I visited the hospital last Friday to investigate complaints that the CT Scanner was barely working.

The scanner is crippled without regular servicing. For the past three weeks it has been used for only a few emergency cases. Other patients are either not done, or transported to the nearby Rahima Moosa Hospital to do a CAT scan there.

It's extremely stressful for both patients and staff.

Breast scans also can't be done at this hospital because another unpaid supplier is refusing to service the mammography machines.

I have heard other stories of suppliers stopping services at Gauteng hospitals because they have not been paid.

Some companies are only getting partial payments and unpaid small firms are going bankrupt.

There is a payments crisis that needs to be sorted out once and for all otherwise more companies will halt essential goods and services to hospitals.

The Gauteng Health Department must give honest answers about what it is doing to pay companies on time rather than continually making false promises.

Statement by Jack Bloom  MPL, DA Gauteng Health Spokesman, June 26 2011

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