Is Gauteng Health Dept covering up cancer backlogs?

14 May 2018

I am concerned that the Gauteng Health Department is covering up backlogs in cancer treatment at the Steve Biko and Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg hospitals, which are the only ones which do radiation therapy in Gauteng.

I asked for the numbers on the waiting lists and the waiting times for cancer treatment at these hospitals in questions for written reply in the Gauteng Legislature, but Gauteng Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa responded in each case that it “varies from month to month” or is “variable periodically”.

Ramokgopa says that the backlog for radiotherapy at Steve Biko Hospital has “been sorted”, but according to a report in yesterday’s Sunday Times, patients can wait up to 4 months which is described by doctors as “extreme and unacceptable”.

It is also reported that there are 500 patients on the waiting list for radiation at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital.

Ramokgopa says in her reply that there is a “scarcity of experts in the field of Oncology ... (and) ... high inflation of health technology and medicines that the budget cannot keep up with.”

Furthermore, at Steve Biko there is a shortage of 6 Radiographers and 3 Medical Oncology Specialists.

It is unacceptable that Ramokgopa refuses to give proper figures for cancer waiting lists and waiting times.

As pointed out by Justice Dikgang Moseneke in the Life Esidimeni arbitration, the MEC is constitutionally obliged to provide accurate information to the Legislature, unlike former Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu who gave false information to my questions on Esidimeni.

It is inexcusable that Ramokgopa gives a vague and evasive response when figures on cancer patients are certainly available.

I fear that lives of cancer patients are at risk because of long waiting times for radiation treatment that the department refuses to acknowledge instead of tackling vigorously.

More transparency is needed so that we know the extent of the cancer treatment problem and what is being done to solve it, otherwise another Esidimeni health disaster could occur in this area.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, 14 May 2018