The DA was today denied the right to perform an oversight inspection at Pietermaritzburg’s Northdale hospital despite a written notification to the office of the acting Head of KZN’s Health Department, Dr Musa Gumede, on the 12 March 2019.
The inspection of this facility comes after the recent death of a 5 month old baby after he was allegedly denied treatment at both this hospital and at Greys.
The norm is that unless we receive a notification from the HOD, advising us to the contrary, the visit is permitted and we go ahead. Yet, it was only today while sitting in the office of the CEO of this scandal-ridden facility that I was informed that I would not be able to go ahead due to a decision by the National Health Ministry yesterday.
The move sees the Ministry clamping down on medical facility inspections across the country on the premise that political parties are intending to visit hospitals to canvass for votes. Elected public representatives must now obtain permission from the MEC for Health in their province and provide good reasons for any proposed visit.
For the Minister and his cohorts to put barriers and hurdles in our path to ensure proper service delivery is despicable. The work of the DA in KZN has been to regularly visit facilities in terms of a constitutional mandate as in Section 114(2)b. Our visits to medical care facilities on the province have also not suddenly increased because of any campaign.
The DA’s track record in KZN shows that we do not only work or inspect healthcare facilities at election time, such as some other political parties. We therefore reject this accusation with the absolute contempt that it deserves.
Since the DA’s visits to KZN medical facilities are always announced, we also reject the National Health Ministers assertion that we rock up unannounced. And the reason he suggests for the facilities being overburdened is precisely why we need to visit them and need to visit by notification as far as possible.
We believe- as we always have – that no permission is required to do our work and that the decision taken by the Ministry of Health should be regarded as ultra vires and must be challenged.
It is critical that MECs respect the rights of MPs and MPLs to do their work without hindrance. We will consult with our senior party leadership and request that they look into a legal challenge of this nonsensical and irrational decision.