KZN Urology Crisis – MEC Dhlomo must go
13 July 2017
As KwaZulu-Natal’s healthcare system collapses amid the finding that Health MEC, Sibongiseni Dhlomo, failed to provide adequate treatment to cancer patients, it has now emerged that the province is also facing a urology crisis.
The situation comes after droves of Urologists have left the KZN Health Department over a period of time with the result that there is now only one urologist based in Ethekwini who must serve the entire southern area of the province. There is also only one such specialist at Grey's Hospital in Pietermaritzburg who is required to serve the northern area of KZN.
The DA can also reveal today that the Urology unit at Newcastle’s Madadeni Hospital is no longer functional and is under the supervision of a single senior doctor trying to do the work of specialists. In addition to this, the unit’s cystoscope, a device required by urologists to investigate possible bladder-related diseases including cancer and to treat kidney stones, is broken. This despite an earlier claim by the MEC that there is early screening for cancer at the facility. The situation has led to a huge influx of urology patients to Grey’s hospital for treatment.
After having received numerous complaints about lengthy delays in treatment at Madadeni Hospital, the DA in May this year submitted parliamentary questions (here and here) to KZN Health MEC, Sibongiseni Dhlomo. These questions remain unanswered.
The impact of not having Urologists is that patients with cancers of the urinary tract, which includes the kidneys, the bladder, the external genitalia and the prostate in males, in certain circumstances have to be attended to by doctors who are not specialised in this field. This increases the risk to the department for medico-legal claims.
The issue of severe specialist shortages was raised by the DA when the MEC delivered his department’s annual budget speech in April. Rather than acknowledging the crisis, the MEC attempted to ridicule the DA. He continues to obfuscate the DA’s efforts to remediate the situation, most recently during an oversight visit to Addington Hospital earlier this week when he abused his power to deny us access to this hospital’s oncology unit.
The MEC has once again failed the people of KZN, this time in Madadeni. There appears to be no end in sight to the suffering of citizens reliant on public healthcare as the DA continues to hear of cases where patients are being told to wait – in some instances for years – for treatment.
Despite having been fingered by the South African Human Rights Commission as the province’s chief violator of human rights, the Premier has chosen not to relieve MEC Dhlomo of his duties. In so doing he has effectively chosen the MEC over the wellbeing of some of our province’s most vulnerable citizens.
The DA will continue to expose the MEC and his department. For as long as he is running KZN’s Health Department, many more patients will continue to suffer and be condemned to untimely deaths under his watch.
Issued by Imran Keeka, DA KZN Spokesperson on Health, 13 July 2017
