Breaking News
LOCAL NEWS - Health facilities across the Eastern Cape are once again unreachable as phone lines have been cut.
According to a statement by Jane Cowley, the DA shadow MEC for Health in the Eastern Cape, the department of health has failed to pay its bills, leaving patients, families and medical professionals in the lurch and unable to contact hospitals and clinics in times of emergency.
Between 12 noon and 13:00 today Graaff-Reinet Advertiser made numerous calls to the Midlands Provincial Hospital in Graaff Reinet dialing 049 807 7748, but to no avail. It sounds as if the phone rings, but the call remains unanswered and eventually switches to a busy tone.
This is a repeat of events in September 2024 when the phone lines to EC health facilities were also cut due to non-payment. At the time Telkom disconnected landlines at several Eastern Cape hospitals and the EMS contact center due to non-payment of a R68,4-million bill.
Cowley says the people of the Eastern Cape have been left to fend for themselves in their time of crisis, with calls for help going unanswered, because the Department of Health has prioritised millionaire manager salaries over frontline services.
"If you need to phone a hospital for help - sorry. If you are in labour and need an ambulance - sorry. If you want to make an appointment for outpatient services - sorry, sorry, sorry."
Cowley says it is the direct result of years of financial mismanagement, ballooning medico-legal claims, and wasteful spending on non-essential programmes designed to benefit cronies instead of communities. "While the Department juggles which service provider to pay next, essential services are collapsing and people are dying as a result."
She says patients die every day while they wait for surgery, cancer treatment, ambulances, medication, or even a phone call for help. "This crisis is not just about unpaid bills; it is about a government that has abandoned the people it is meant to serve."
Complaint to Public Protector
Cowley will be laying a formal complaint with the Public Protector, Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka, to investigate the Department’s financial mismanagement, failure to pay essential service providers, and ongoing failure to deliver basic healthcare services to the people of this province.
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