Ulundi municipality vs KZN health MEC in hospital closure saga

22 March 2022 - 15:25 By LWAZI HLANGU
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KwaZulu-Natal health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu is battling with Ulundi municipality over the impending closure of a hospital. File photo.
KwaZulu-Natal health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu is battling with Ulundi municipality over the impending closure of a hospital. File photo.
Image: Supplied

Ulundi municipality and KwaZulu-Natal health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu are at loggerheads after she accused it of instigating protests against her department.

This comes amid recent protests by residents in Ulundi, who have been protesting against the impending closure of St Francis Hospital, allegedly without their being properly consulted.

Residents closed the R66 on Monday and a truck was set alight on Friday as protest action that started on March 11 intensified.

Protesters complained that their local heath facility is being turned into a white elephant, with doctors transferred to the nearby Nkonjeni Hospital and the mortuary closed despite it recently being revamped to the tune of R56m.

On Friday, Simelane-Zulu released a statement explaining that this is part of “rationalising” healthcare service delivery to all facilities in the province which are located close to one another.

“This is to eradicate duplication, wastefulness, inadequate allocation of human material resources and lack of co-ordination when it comes to the provision of healthcare services,” she said.

“As a department that presides over a substantial portion of the public purse, we have a responsibility to ensure all employees are gainfully employed and our limited resources are used optimally.”

Health portfolio committee chairperson Nomakiki Majola told TimesLIVE rationalisation is a process where the department compares staff and resources against patient admissions and budget in hospitals that are in relatively close proximity to each other to increase efficiency and variety of healthcare services in the facilities.

“Rationalisation will prevent under-utilisation of staff in one hospital while another is over-burdened,” said Majola.

If one hospital has 70 beds but admits 40 on average while a nearby hospital has 90 beds but gets more traffic, there is under-utilisation of resources and staff in the first hospital
KwaZulu-Natal health portfolio committee chair Nomakiki Majola

“If one hospital has 70 beds but admits 40 on average while a nearby hospital has 90 beds but gets more traffic, there is under-utilisation of resources and staff in the first hospital, so they will be redeployed in other hospitals and clinics where there will be better use of them.”

St Francis is one of two district hospitals in Ulundi alongside Nkonjeni Hospital.

The MEC said the rationalisation process was halted in its final stages when the country was hit by the pandemic and St Francis had to be revamped to help accommodate Covid-19 patients.

She blamed political interference for disrupting the resumption of the process at St  Francis which, she said, has unfolded smoothly in other institutions that experienced delays.

“However, at St Francis in particular, health officials are having a challenge with resuming the process due to political interference, mainly by the IFP.

“The IFP has sought to hijack the process to score cheap political points.”

She also blamed district mayor Thulasizwe Buthelezi and Ulundi mayor Wilson Ntshangase for the protests.

“The mayor of the IFP-led Zululand district, Buthelezi, and his Ulundi municipality counterpart, Ntshangase, have agitated the people of Ulundi about the troubled St Francis Hospital, making access in and out of the hospital difficult,” she said.

The municipality hit back on Monday.

“It's very unfortunate the MEC accused mayor Ntshangase of being one of the instigators of the community protest over its grievances about the impending closure of St Francis Hospital.

“The mayor, together with acting municipal manager Zwelihle Dhlamini and local councillors, played a huge role in diffusing that situation [last Monday]. It's embarrassing that the MEC can speak like this in public.”

Ntshangase confirmed he addressed the community to stop them from closing the road as it was disrupting the functioning of the town and preventing people going to work.

He said residents told them the government had been ignoring their grievances since 2016.

“I'm very disappointed that a MEC trusted by the province can utter such defamatory words. We wouldn't be here if the government, especially the provincial health department, had listened to the community and came forward to explain to them what is happening.”

Majola said the committee raised the matter in a meeting with the department of health on Thursday.

“We have asked for the full report of the process and its progress so far We are waiting for that report. We can’t have staff and community aggrieved because they haven’t been consulted properly,” said Majola.

However, the department said it concluded consultations with all relevant stakeholders.

“The department has long completed the wide consultative processes with local leadership, traditional leadership, hospital board, labour component, relevant stakeholders and the affected community on this matter.”

TimesLIVE

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