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A Death Sentence for Cancer Patients

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Dear Editor

The Oncology Department at Gqeberha’s Provincial Hospital is facing devastating chemotherapy shortages because the Eastern Cape Department of Health has failed to pay its pharmaceutical suppliers.

During a recent oversight inspection at Gqeberha’s Provincial Hospital it became apparent that patients did not have access to life-saving cancer treatments because the Department had failed to pay for the drugs.

Patients with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and other treatable cancers are now being treated with second-line medications that have a reduced efficacy, because medications that are globally recognised as the first line of treatment are no longer available to them. As a result, many patients have regressed, resulting in them being removed from transplant lists for procedures such as bone marrow transplants because they are now too ill to have the procedure done.

Imagine being told that your child, your parent, or your partner, could have been saved — if only the Department of Health had prioritised their life over paying its bloated administrative costs and millionaire managers.

How can we, as a society, accept this? We should all be outraged!

The Department’s ongoing financial mismanagement is no longer just a bureaucratic failure—it is a death sentence for individuals who might otherwise have had a fighting chance.

This cannot be business as usual. The Democratic Alliance (DA) is calling for the Eastern Cape Department of Health to be placed under administration in terms of Section 100 of the Constitution.

Such intervention is not an admission of failure. It is a lifeline for a system on the verge of collapse. It is a call to action to protect the constitutional right to healthcare and, most critically, the right to life.

What is happening at Provincial Hospital is just one example of a healthcare system collapsing under the weight of incompetence, corruption, and misplaced priorities.

This crisis doesn’t just impact patients today. It threatens the entire future of our healthcare system. By failing to pay suppliers of essential drugs, the Department is exposing itself to even more medico-legal claims, potentially plunging it further into financial ruin. Claims are already a major contributor to the current crisis, and the failure to act decisively now will only deepen the spiral of dysfunction.

I have written to the MEC for Health, Ntandokazi Capa, demanding immediate payment to pharmaceutical suppliers to restore access to life-saving treatments such as chemotherapy and other cancer treatments. Furthermore, I have called for an urgent reassessment of the Department’s spending priorities. Every cent spent on administrative waste and non-core programmes must be redirected toward saving lives.

This is not just a healthcare issue; it is a moral issue. Every day of inaction costs lives, and we cannot stand idly by while patients suffer and die because of the Department’s gross negligence.

Regards

Jane Cowley MPL
DA Shadow MEC for Health

Sourced From MyZA.co.za

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