By Anita Dangazele
- Songezo Zibi warned Grey Hospital could close after his visit found it badly understaffed, poorly maintained and operating without safety certification.
- Health MEC Ntandokazi Capa must now submit a report on funding shortfalls while Jane Cowley called for urgent government action.
Grey Hospital in Qonce is under serious scrutiny after an oversight visit found major problems with how it operates.
Songezo Zibi, chair of the standing committee on public accounts, visited the hospital and found it was badly short of staff.
The building was poorly maintained and the hospital was operating without an occupational health certificate.
Zibi warned that these failures could lead to the hospital being shut down.
Eastern Cape health MEC Ntandokazi Capa has been asked to submit a detailed report to the provincial health portfolio committee.
The report must explain the hospital’s funding shortfalls and growing uncertainty about its operations.
Democratic Alliance MPL Jane Cowley has written to both Capa and national health minister Aaron Motsoaledi.
She asked for stronger oversight and urgent action to ensure the hospital can function properly.
Cowley said she wrote the letters because of what she called departmental mismanagement.
She said Grey Hospital was close to collapse. It offered poor services, had too few staff, lacked medication and was struggling to run basic operations.
She also raised concern that the hospital is meant to be a district hospital that should ease pressure on bigger facilities.
Instead, she said, it was failing and adding to the crisis in the health system.
Cowley asked the MEC what plans were in place to keep the hospital open and how funding challenges would be addressed.
She also wanted clarity on plans to restore services and stabilise operations. Previous reports found the hospital was using a staffing plan from 2007.
This forced staff into roles they were not trained for.
Emergency patients were also suffering because non-emergency cases were flooding the hospital. This was made worse by the lack of a nearby community health centre.
Capa’s spokesperson Camagwini Mavovana said the MEC would respond through the proper legislative channels.
She said the department had sent management and clinical support teams to the hospital and that services were stable.
She added that Grey Hospital remained operational with doctors on site and plans to strengthen staffing.
Pictured above: Patients in a queue at Grey Hospital in Qonce.
Image source: Eastern Cape department of health
