By Anita Dangazele
- The Democratic Alliance has laid a complaint with the Human Rights Commission, saying patients are dying due to drug shortages.
- The health department blames unpaid bills, but says new medicine will arrive by the end of May.
Cancer patients in Gqeberha have been turned away from hospitals because there is no chemotherapy medicine.
Livingstone Hospital and Port Elizabeth Provincial Hospital have been without the life-saving drugs for weeks. There is no clear date for when treatment will return.
The Democratic Alliance has now taken the fight to the South African Human Rights Commission. It says the Eastern Cape Health Department has failed cancer patients.
Jane Cowley, the Democratic Alliance’s Shadow MEC for Health, said the situation is so bad it amounts to a human rights violation.
She laid a formal complaint with the Commission’s Eastern Cape manager, Dr Eileen Carter.
She said: “This has led to avoidable suffering, rapid disease progression, and, in some cases, the premature death of patients who could have survived with timely intervention.”
Cowley said chemotherapy medicine has been out of stock many times, and delays in treatment are now normal.
She believes the problem is much bigger than just these two hospitals. She said insiders have confirmed that drug shortages are happening more often.
“Every delay places more patients at risk of irreversible harm,” said Cowley. “We urge the Commission to treat this with the seriousness and urgency it deserves.”
The Eastern Cape Health Department responded by saying it has set aside R200-million to buy specialist drugs, including cancer medicine.
Spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said R43-million of that will be used to pay pharmaceutical companies still owed money for cancer medicine from last year.
He said payments should go through this week, and the backlog should be cleared by the end of May.
“Cancer patients are receiving their treatment. In some instances, alternative regimes were administered,” he said.
He added that new stock is on its way from suppliers including Adcock Health, Fresenius, Kiara and Macleods.
Two top officials have been sent to Gqeberha to speed up service delivery at Livingstone and Dora Nginza hospitals.
The department has also hired 10 doctors and 20 nurses for Dora Nginza to help with the workload.
Pictured above: Cancer patients queue outside Port Elizabeth Provincial Hospital in Gqeberha amid drug shortages.
Image source: Supplied
