Health care in Namaqualand has gotten off to a grim start, with severe staff constraints in Calvinia and transport issues in Sanddrift interrupting access to services.
The DA has appealed to the MEC and the HOD of Health to take urgent action before more lives are lost due to the increasingly scant provision of healthcare in the Northern Cape.
In Calvinia, the Health Department failed to fill the community service post and to finalise at least two doctors’ contracts at Abraham Esau Hospital.
The severe personnel shortages mean that there are only four doctors available to operationalise the entire hospital. The doctors, who up to now have been working between 200 and 300 hours overtime, are experiencing burn out.
They are only contracted to work 80 hours overtime per month. They have understandably and legitimately decided to stick to their contractual hours.
In effect, all outside clinics have had to be cancelled until further notice. This will have a critical impact on access to health care, as there will be days when there is no doctor on call for the hospital and no doctor available to make referrals to other facilities.
In addition, the recent closure of the Sanddrift clinic by personnel and community members has dealt a further blow to health care services in rural Namaqualand.
The lack of transport available to nurses, to enable them get to Sanddrift, has caused health care services in this area to come to a standstill. Patients have pay up to R800 for transport to access health care in alternate towns.
The health and wellbeing of medical personnel is at stake, as are the lives of patients who are dependent on state health care.
The situation cannot be allowed to continue and has already resulted in community protests closing down health care services.
The DA has issued letters to the MEC, HOD and the Premier, demanding that these issues are addressed.