Note to editors: You can download an English sound clip from Jane Cowley MPL.
A four-year-old child who had allegedly been raped was forced to wait until the following day for critical medical and forensic treatment because there was no doctor on duty at Sundays Valley Hospital in Kirkwood.
On Friday, the child was taken from a farm to the Kirkwood Police Station, where a case was opened. She was then taken to Sundays Valley Hospital for a formal medical examination and to collect forensic evidence.
Despite reportedly bleeding heavily, the child and her family were turned away because there was no doctor available to examine her. She only received the necessary medical and forensic care the following day.
This is an appalling failure of a health system that should protect the most vulnerable members of our society.
At a time when gender-based violence and femicide continue to devastate families and communities across the Eastern Cape, victims must be able to access immediate medical care, forensic services, and appropriate support when they need it most.
It is equally unacceptable that a district hospital should be left without a doctor on duty, particularly over a month-end weekend when hospitals frequently experience increased pressure from trauma and emergency cases.
I have written to the Acting Head of Department, Dr Mthandeki Xamlashe, demanding answers as to why Sundays Valley Hospital had no doctor on duty. I have also requested a time-bound plan to ensure district hospitals have adequate medical cover at all times so this never happens again.
The tragedy is that while critical shortages of doctors and other clinical staff leave hospitals unable to provide essential care, newly qualified young doctors from the Eastern Cape remain at home without opportunities to serve their communities. Health MEC Ntandokazi Capa has publicly indicated that the department does not have sufficient funding to employ them.
At the same time, the department continues to carry an excessively bloated administrative structure. Once accruals and payables are taken into account, employee costs consume more than 80% of the department’s annual budget. By comparison, the significantly larger Western Cape health system keeps employee costs at approximately 60% to 64% of its budget, while employing around 7 000 fewer administrative staff.
This is ultimately a question of priorities.
Every rand spent sustaining an inefficient bureaucracy is money that cannot be used to appoint doctors, nurses, emergency personnel, and other frontline healthcare professionals.
Until the Eastern Cape Department of Health starts prioritising clinical posts and frontline services over bureaucracy and cadre deployment, patients will continue to pay the price for the department’s failures.
No child who has suffered such a horrific crime should ever arrive at a public hospital seeking help, only to be told that there is no doctor available.