The horrific state of Helen Joseph Hospital, laid bare in two watchdog reports released on Monday, is symptomatic of a far bigger crisis in the Gauteng health department.
Independent investigations by health ombud Taole Mokoena and the Office of Health Standards Compliance confirmed former broadcaster Tom London’s allegations last year that patients at Helen Joseph Hospital are treated in undignified and unhygienic conditions. Their reports described fly-infested wards, litter-strewn grounds and so few working toilets that staff are forced to use a nearby shopping mall to relieve themselves.
More importantly, they exposed extensive governance failings, ranging from a dysfunctional hospital board to no proper oversight of procurement processes, that leave the hospital open to corruption. Little wonder patients frequently wait for days in the over-crowded emergency department, only to be admitted to a ward in which they are unlikely to be provided with clean linen or nutritious food.
This is not the first investigation into a Gauteng public hospital. The health ombud’s probe into the death of Shonisani Lethole at Tembisa Hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic revealed gross negligence, severe staff shortages and extensive administrative failures.
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has placed this hospital at the centre of an extensive corruption network running to more than R3bn, in which officials allegedly siphoned off money with inflated contracts. Whistle-blower Babita Deokaran was assassinated for raising the alarm about these fishy contracts, yet more than three years later only her killers have been prosecuted. The mastermind behind the hit remains unknown and the SIU has yet to ensure any of the officials implicated in the scandal face criminal charges.
An investigation into the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital in 2022 found expectant mothers forced to sleep on the floor, overflowing toilets and unheated wards. The then health ombud Malegapuru Makgoba’s report set out the facility’s failings and provided a blueprint for fixing them: two years later, only half of his 44 recommendations have been implemented, and the independent forensic team that was supposed to be appointed within two months to assess the hospital’s management team has yet to be established.
In 2016, the Wits centre for health policy characterised the Gauteng health department as one in which mismanagement and corruption were rife. Almost a decade later, nothing appears to have changed.
The department’s budget deficit now stands at R7.3bn, and as has become the norm towards the end of every financial year, it has frozen posts and is leaving suppliers unpaid until the next financial year begins on April 1. The cash crunch means surgeries are postponed, hospitals risk running out of essential medicines and staff are forced to work in increasingly difficult conditions.
There is clearly no political appetite to address these problems. Year after year, scandal after scandal, there are shamefully few consequences for individuals who are at best incompetent and at worst corrupt.
All of this does little to build faith in the public health system, or trust health minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s promises about National Health Insurance. If he really wants to garner public support for the scheme, fixing the rot in the Gauteng health department would be a good place to start.
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