Residents living in Nelson Mandela Bay have been unable to get any assistance from the Provincial Department of Health’s Emergency Medical Services, because the call centre has been offline. Imagine lying bleeding on the side of the road or being in labour and needing an ambulance, and your calls for help go unanswered. This is a shocking failure of government. The call centre, based at the head office at the …


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The provincial government needs to put firm plans in place to take Eastern Cape hospitals off the grid. The ongoing rolling blackouts across the country are deepening the crises at hospitals, which are struggling to keep lifesaving equipment running during power outages. Cash-strapped hospitals, already battling to pay suppliers for basics such as food and laundry services, not to mention lifesaving equipment and oxygen, are now having to divert millions …


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Yesterday the ANC made it clear that they do not want the people of the Eastern Cape to have access to emergency medical services, shooting down a motion tabled in the Legislature to address the crippling state of emergency services in the province. The motion, tabled by the DA, called for the outsourcing of repairs and maintenance of ambulances, to speed up ambulance turnaround times and improve service delivery. It …


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The condition of the once world-class Uitenhage Provincial Hospital has deteriorated to such an extent that it is unfathomable that the Department of Health considers the facility acceptable for patient care. Oversight of the hospital this week revealed passages filled with medical waste, dirty linen shoved in random storerooms and patient toilet doors sealed with tape, as the toilets remain out of order. The now infamous main elevators of the …


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Critically ill patients fight for their lives, and some die, while waiting for an ambulance that takes hours to arrive, if at all. This is not only traumatic for them but for their loved ones. The sad reality is that the Eastern Cape’s Emergency Medical Service (EMS) is collapsing. Ambulance response times run into hours, not minutes, and that’s if they come at all because the centralised emergency call centre …


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Tourism and the associated jobs are under siege in this province, because the Department of Environmental Affairs is spending too much money on consultants, and not enough on environmental protection. There’s not even enough money for law enforcement officers to drive the length and breadth of this province to protect the environment and save us from poachers. The MEC for DEDEAT, Mlungisi Mvoko, must immediately ring fence funding currently spent …


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Patients have been irrevocably maimed, their limbs amputated, and lives forever changed, because of Health MEC Nomakhosazana Meth’s failure to implement a directive from the Provincial Legislature to pay suppliers of critical medical equipment at Livingstone Hospital. The Democratic Alliance has been informed that at least three people needed their limbs amputated due to complications from postponed surgeries requiring critical medical equipment. We will write to the Minister of Health, …


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The recent tragic events at the Enyobeni Tavern in Scenery Park, Buffalo City, where 21 children lost their lives in a tavern, brings into stark focus the failure of the Eastern Cape Liquor Board (ECLB) to enforce compliance regulations across the province. The MEC for DEDEAT, Mlungisi Mvoko, must call the ECLB to account for their failures and must take proactive steps to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening …


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The irresponsible court application by the Department of Health to deprive victims who suffered medical malpractice of compensation has thankfully been thwarted by the Makhanda High Court. National Government must take note and immediately place this bankrupt and financially reckless Health Department under administration in terms of Section 100 of the Constitution before it collapses. The court ruling means more than R400 million will have to be paid out to …


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The Eastern Cape MEC of Health, Nomakhosazana Meth, has blamed Covid-19 to explain why her Department failed to implement a resolution of the Eastern Cape Legislature that would see that the suppliers of Livingstone Hospital be paid so that life-saving surgery can be performed. Three weeks ago I tabled a motion in the Legislature, where I raised the plight of patients at Livingstone Hospital who cannot be operated on because …


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