The DA in the Eastern Cape has written to health minister Joe Phaahla regarding what it labelled poor financial management, which has negatively affected patients in the province.
This follows an operation by the sheriff of the court last week which saw vehicles, chairs, filing cabinets and desks carried away from the Provincial Hospital in Gqeberha last Thursday.
The sheriff was acting on a default judgment against the department of health in Nelson Mandela Bay, which ruled in favour of four employees.
The Herald understands the payment dispute relates to unpaid pension payouts and other payment s owed to the workers, which the department of health is now finalising.
In her statement, DA MPL Jane Cowley said the Provincial, Livingstone and other hospitals had their operational budgets severely slashed by the department.
“To continue offering services, these hospitals have accumulated substantial debts to suppliers and service providers, which they simply cannot afford to pay.
“In response to a parliamentary question, the head of the department, Rolene Wagner, acknowledged that at the beginning of the new financial year in April, pharmaceutical companies, medical implants and equipment suppliers, as well as providers of oxygen and anaesthetic gases, were collectively owed more than R970m,” Cowley said.
Cowley said that of the department’s R2.8bn budget allocation, 17% should be going to pay off debt from previous financial years.
“Several small and medium suppliers have cut their losses.
“Some have been forced to close their doors.
“Bigger companies have adopted a zero-tolerance approach to carrying this outstanding debt, in some cases for years, and are now taking action.
“Last month, Afrox publicly threatened to stop supplying the department with oxygen and other gases if its account was not settled.
“I have written to Phaahla to highlight the catastrophic impact of this poor fiscal management and maladministration on the most vulnerable in society, the patients who depend on this department for their health and wellbeing,” she said.
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