Lenasia South Community Health Centre is proof that the NHI is not feasible

Note to Editors: This statement follows an oversight inspection by the DA Shadow Minister of Health, Patricia Kopane MP and the DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, Jack Bloom MPL, to the Lenasia South Community Health Centre in Johannesburg. Please find attached pictures here, here, here and here.

Today, the DA visited the Lenasia South Community Health Centre in Johannesburg. The facility only scored a meagre 48% in the Office of Health Standards Compliance’s (OHSC) Annual Inspection Report for 2016/17. The report, which focusses on patient rights and safety; leadership and governance; operational management and facilities and infrastructure, identified the health centre as one of the worst performing health facilities in Gauteng.

However, this figure was disputed by the Centre’s management, who stated that the facility received an overall performance score of 66% from the Gauteng Department of Health. The DA will notify the OHSC to request that these discrepancies are investigated.

Community members present at the oversight inspection shared their frustrations with the DA regarding staff attitudes, filing issues and long waiting hours. According to the Centre's management, the average waiting time is a shocking 160 minutes over the last six months, however, community members disputed this claim.

One patient shared her story of how her file was lost three times, the poor treatment she received from the staff and that her doctor misdiagnosed her with appendicitis when she later went to the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital she was diagnosed with colon cancer.

The challenges at the Lenasia South Community Health Centre is a direct result of the ANC’s failures to provide our people with quality, dignified public healthcare. Poor, sick and vulnerable South Africans are subjected to demeaning healthcare services on a daily basis.

The National Health Insurance (NHI) plan touted by the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, will not fix the problems facing the public health sector.

Health facilities such as the Lenasia South Community Health Centre and the failed NHI pilot projects are proof that the ANC does not have a sound plan to provide poor South Africans with quality healthcare.

The DA’s Our Health Plan is a tried and tested plan. The DA-governed, Western Cape, has the best public healthcare sector in the country. The Western Cape health sector has a proven track-record of delivering better health care than any other province in South Africa.

The DA remains committed to providing all South Africans with dignified health services and we will continue to fight for every citizen’s right to access quality public healthcare.

Statement issued by Patricia Kopane MP, DA Shadow Minister of Health, 6 July 2018