TAC puts lab on the slab

07 July 2015 - 02:02 By Katharine Child

The Treatment Action Campaign and the minister of health are at loggerheads again. This time it is over the functioning of the National Health Laboratory Service, which the TAC believes is in crisis due to unpaid debts by provincial health departments and leadership changes.In a letter written to Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi a few weeks ago, the TAC said it wanted to work with the minister to fix problems at the lab service, saying: "We cannot afford to lose this treasure."The letter - signed by the SA Medical Association, the Junior Doctors Association and the Rural Doctors Association - said "the NHLS has been lurching from one financial crisis to another".The lab service does all the testing of blood, sputum, urine and other tissue samples for all government hospitals.The KwaZulu-Natal government owes the NHLS about R3-billion. Gauteng owes at least R800-million.But Motsoaledi maintains the problems at the NHLS can be fixed.It won an award from the Swiss Institute of Quality Standards and the Socrates Committee for the quality of its tests at an international conference on July 1, said Joe Maila, heath ministry spokesman."In the department's view the award serves as affirmation of its position as a leader in practice in rendering laboratory-based diagnostic services to South Africa and increasingly to the African continent and beyond."But TAC researcher Marcus Low said yesterday: "For the minister simply to say things are fine is not really good enough. We needanswers to the questions we put to him in the letter."The letter also points out that NHLS board chairman Professor Algonda Perez and deputy chairman Fazel Randera resigned last month, but Maila said this was not a problem."An interim management team has been appointed by the minister. It includes Professor Barry Schoub, an internationally respected virologist who ran the National Institute for Communicable Diseases."Maila said eight provinces were paying their debts and, from April 1 every bill had been "settled"...

There’s never been a more important time to support independent media.

From World War 1 to present-day cosmopolitan South Africa and beyond, the Sunday Times has been a pillar in covering the stories that matter to you.

For just R80 you can become a premium member (digital access) and support a publication that has played an important political and social role in South Africa for over a century of Sundays. You can cancel anytime.

Already subscribed? Sign in below.



Questions or problems? Email helpdesk@timeslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00.