It has taken the Eastern Cape Department of Health only three months to plunge the well-serviced and functional Dordrecht Hospital in a financial crisis. The Democratic Alliance has learned with concern that since the facility became state-funded, no payments have been made to the hospital. The staff has not been paid and medical supplies are running low.

This state of affairs was revealed by the DA structure of Dordrecht, who requested me to act on their behalf.

Despite many challenges, this hospital has rendered impeccable service in this area and has a sound track record as far as service delivery is concerned. Unfortunately, this level of service delivery is now under threat due to increasing financial constraints.

Upon advice and insistence from the Department of Health during May this year the hospital opted for provincialisation. It is now almost two months down the line and it seems like the processing thereof has come to a complete standstill.

Hospital staff is not yet registered on the Persal-system, resulting in salaries not being paid. (subs: Persal is the computerised Human Resources system for government) Medicines are running low and the food will last another two weeks. There is no money to run this hospital as efficiently and effectively as in the past because the subsidy has not been paid for the last three months now.

I have written to the MEC to appeal directly to him to please look into this situation and to intervene. I trust that the concern is mutual. The community of Dordrecht and hospital staff deserves better.

For further information, please contact Pine Pienaar, MPL on 082 446 1888