The dilapidated state of the Colchester clinic shows just how little the ANC provincial government cares about the people of the Eastern Cape and is testament to why the Democratic Alliance (DA) is calling for the Eastern Cape Department of Health to be placed under administration.
Yesterday, 13 September 2023, I was joined by DA councillor Pieter Terblanche in conducting an oversight inspection at the Colchester clinic in Nelson Mandela Bay. What we found, was an appalling testimony to the collapsing state of healthcare in the province.
The clinic is extremely understaffed and only opens once a week. The structure is dilapidated and vandalised. The clinic has no water and electricity, no ablution facilities and no appropriate area for patients to wait and be attended to. Medication is only brought in once a week and is taken away at the end of the day.
The DA EC Shadow MEC for Health, Jane Cowley MPL, has already written to the Minister of Health, Dr Joe Paahla, to call for the Eastern Cape Department of Health to be placed under administration. I will now also be submitting questions to the Eastern Cape MEC for Health, Nomakhosazana Meth, to ask how she will intervene and what her recovery plan is for this disastrous clinic.
The DA will continue to fight for the people of the Eastern Cape to ensure that they are rescued from the failing Department of Health.