The Democratic Alliance (DA) has successfully persuaded the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to order the Mpumalanga Health Department to fix challenges at Bernice Samuels Hospital in Delmas.
In April and July last year, a concerned patient and the DA lodged complaints with SAHRC against the hospital on behalf of the community. The complaints were related to poor service delivery, denial of medical attention, and ill-treatment by the hospital medical staff.
After SAHRC investigation, they released a provisional report this month where they identified:
• Delays in providing healthcare services at the Hospital have become systemic.
• Inadequate staffing arrangements.
• Inadequate management and allocation of medical officers.
• The absence of active management of queues.
• The failure of medical staff to start work in the OPD as early as the OPD opens.
• Uncleanliness of some of the Hospital’s public facilities.
• Discourteous conduct by some medical staff.
• Inconsistent implementation of security measures at the hospital.
The SAHRC report mentioned that “all the above challenges collectively constitute a violation of patients’ right of access to health care services enshrined in Section 27(1)(a) of the Constitution – and a failure by the Mpumalanga Department of Health (MDOH) and the hospital to discharge their obligations”.
SAHRC gave directives that within 90 days of the final report (which will be released soon), the MDOH and the hospital must submit a time-bound plan for the implementation of measures to address all the challenges at the hospital.
They further stated that the plan should outline the people responsible for its implementation, as well as how and when the implementation of the plan will be monitored. The department was also directed to submit a quarterly report on the effectiveness of the proposed measures.
The DA welcomes the SAHRC provisional report and we look forward to the final one. We are convinced that the Constitutional right to healthcare will be upheld by the MDOH and Bernice Samuels Hospital. We will also continue to monitor conditions at the hospital.