KARIEGA – Democratic Alliance(DA) in the Eastern Cape has issued a statement stating that, Shadow MEC for Health, Jane Cowley Member of Parliament (MPL), said that the Eastern Cape Department of Health paid out R67 million to 45 medical employees at the Orsmond Tuberculosis Hospital in Kariega despite it being closed for almost 2 years.
This revelation was made in response to a parliamentary question from the DA, where the department acknowledged that while the hospital has had no patients for a period of almost 2 years. The employees refused to be transferred to other medical facilities in the district, despite this being agreed by their unions.
To date, no action has been taken against the employees according to the DA Shadow MEC of Health, it is unlikely that any action will be taken against them.
“It is unthinkable that 45 Health Department employees can be allowed to sit and do nothing while being paid a total of over R67 million because they do not want to get transferred from their closed medical facility to any other medical facility.
Hospitals and clinics in the province are severely understaffed and many of citizens are struggling and cannot find jobs yet no steps have been taken to discipline these morally bankrupt rogues who believe the job is to get the job and not do the job. The MEC must take steps to redeploy or terminate their services,” Cowley.
It is unfortunate that people would rather watch the system crumble than actually do their jobs and serve the people has they had been trained to do so. The hospital has an X-ray machine worth millions of rand and other medical equipment which can be used elsewhere.
The outgoing Health Ombudsman summed up the EC Department of Health perfectly in a simple statement, “The Eastern Cape Department of Health is an embarrassment”.
The Eastern Cape province is full of potential but by the looks of things that’s all it will ever be…wasted potential. All those years of medical studies and yet people choose to do nothing while there are patients dying in need of their expertise. This is extremely disappointing.
