For the past four weeks, the Orthopaedic Department at Livingstone Hospital has been unable to perform critical orthopaedic surgeries because it has completely run out of orthopaedic implants. More than 100 patients are now waiting for procedures that should, under normal circumstances, be performed urgently.
These delays are causing real harm to patients, who are being left in pain, with worsening injuries, prolonged immobility, and growing uncertainty about whether they will recover fully. For many, the consequences will extend far beyond the hospital ward, affecting their ability to work, care for their families, and live with dignity.
The Democratic Alliance has submitted a parliamentary question to MEC for Health Ntandokazi Capa to establish whether any formal data exists quantifying the full psychosocial and socio-economic impact of delayed orthopaedic surgeries and substandard orthopaedic procedures on patients and their families. I will also escalate this matter to the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, in the National Assembly.
In the absence of definitive surgical repair, patients have been managed with temporary and compromised measures such as Plaster of Paris immobilisation or limited fixation with K-wires. These are not acceptable substitutes for the procedures patients actually need. They carry a high risk of poor outcomes, including non-union, partial union, sepsis, chronic disability, and even death.
Despite recent assurances from the department, this years-old crisis has still not been properly resolved or managed. Orthopaedic wards remain so overcrowded with patients waiting for surgery that new trauma patients cannot be admitted. Many are left for days on trolleys in Casualty with limited nursing care, placing both patients and staff at significant risk.
Patients on waiting lists for elective procedures, including hip and knee replacements, continue to suffer. Some have already waited years for surgery, yet the list continues to grow while the hospital struggles even to cope with emergency cases. The result is prolonged pain, worsening deformity, avoidable disability, and in many cases, the loss of independence and livelihood.
These failures point to a provincial health system crippled by poor planning, ineffective procurement, chronic staff shortages, and a glaring lack of accountability. Experienced nurses, medical officers, and specialists remain bound by their ethical duty to advocate for patients, yet many are reluctant to speak out for fear of victimisation. They are working under immense strain and burnout while being forced to navigate systemic failures that directly undermine patient outcomes.
The core responsibility of the Department of Health is to provide services that protect and improve the health and well-being of the people who depend on it. Instead, orthopaedic patients are being left deformed, disabled, and in some cases unable to work again, with devastating consequences for their families and for society more broadly.
When a department consistently fails to fulfil its most basic mandate, intervention becomes unavoidable. The Eastern Cape cannot continue to accept a health system that leaves vulnerable people to suffer while officials issue reassurances and conditions deteriorate. The department must be placed under administration until it can once again provide the standard of healthcare that people are entitled to receive.
This is a failure of dignity, accountability, and care. The people of the Eastern Cape deserve a health system that works, leadership that takes responsibility, and government that does not abandon them in their time of greatest need.