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.