Viral footage from Dora Nginza Hospital this morning has again laid bare the shocking conditions patients are being forced to endure in an Eastern Cape public hospital. Patients are seen lying neglected in wards, while a male patient lies on the floor in a corridor. The video was allegedly taken during visiting hours, yet not a single nurse or doctor is visible. Most alarming of all is that even the high care unit appears to have been abandoned.
For patients and their families, this is the reality inside Dora Nginza Hospital, being left without care, without attention, and without dignity. No person seeking treatment in a public hospital should be left without care, without dignity, and without even the reassurance that medical staff are present.
I have written to the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, requesting urgent intervention to restore functionality and basic healthcare services at Dora Nginza Hospital.
The Democratic Alliance will continue to pursue every available avenue of oversight and accountability until patients at this facility are treated with the dignity and care they deserve.
This latest incident must be viewed in the context of findings already made at the hospital. In March 2024, the Office of the Public Protector conducted an unannounced oversight visit to Dora Nginza and uncovered multiple systemic deficiencies, including severe clinical and non-clinical staff shortages, inadequate healthcare machinery and equipment, and extremely poor financial management.
Premier Oscar Mabuyane and Head of Department Dr Rolene Wagner reportedly failed to respond to requests for input during that investigation.
The Public Protector found that Dora Nginza was unable to provide even basic healthcare services as required by the Constitution, and issued strong time-bound recommendations on the filling of vacant posts, the upgrading of equipment, and the strengthening of fiscal controls.
It is now clear that those recommendations were not heeded.
Despite recent assurances by the Head of Department during Health Portfolio budget meetings that improvements were underway and vacancies were being filled, those claims are not reflected in the experience of patients at this hospital.
The footage seen this morning points instead to a facility in deep distress, where systemic failure is being normalised.
The rights and dignity of patients and their families are being trampled upon. That a patient can be left lying on the floor of a hospital corridor in full view of visitors is a disgrace and an indictment of a department that has become dangerously removed from the reality of service delivery collapse across the province.
The Eastern Cape Department of Health remains out of touch with the conditions unfolding daily in hospitals and clinics across the province. It has chosen political patronage above good governance, cadres above competence, and protectionism above patient care.
What is required now is principled leadership that ensures capable clinical and non-clinical staff are recruited without delay, that national norms and standards for healthcare delivery are upheld, and that strict fiscal discipline is enforced so that hospitals such as Dora Nginza can once again treat people with the dignity they deserve.
The people of the Eastern Cape deserve leadership that delivers, and a future built on dignity, opportunity, and honest government.