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Urgent interventions needed in EC health to save lives during Covid-19 Pandemic

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https://youtu.be/OMBzwb0rWVA

Dear MyPE

The Democratic Alliance has a turnaround strategy for the Eastern Cape Health Department’s woeful response, to date, to the Covid-19 pandemic that is sweeping through the province.

Today I, accompanied by DA Shadow Minister of Health, Siviwe Gwarube, MP, and DA EC Shadow MEC for Health, Jane Cowley, MPL, unpacked a plan to get the province back on track in combatting the spread of this disease.

As of yesterday, the Eastern Cape has had 774 positive cases. Sadly, the disease has claimed another four people, bringing the province’s death toll to 17. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families affected.

On 3 March, a leading Eastern Cape epidemiologist briefed the Legislature on the state of readiness of the province to combat Covid-19. His synopsis was bleak, but he gave clear recommendations on necessary steps that the Health Department should take.

Six weeks passed and little action was taken to address the shortcomings that had been highlighted. Preparations were poorly co-ordinated and slow.

The most significant failures of the provincial response, to date, are as follows:

  • A lack of decisive provincial leadership has resulted in a frantic, scrambled and largely reactive rollout of measures to curb the transmission of the virus.
  • There has been a lack of screening, testing, track and trace and other data being made available. Communication of statistics is irregular and inconsistent, which hampers planning an effective response.
  • The screening and testing strategy has been poorly managed, resulting in a desperately slow testing rate. To date the province has only tested 17 749 people. The province should be testing at double this rate to achieve meaningful results.
  • An ineffective track and trace programme. The latest available statistics, which is already two weeks old, show that hundreds of close contacts of provincial Covid-19 patients had not been traced.
  • A desperate shortage of medical personnel due to extremely high numbers of vacant, funded posts. This has left hospitals and clinics stretched to their limits and has impacted negatively on the quality of healthcare offered.
  • Continued shortages of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) have resulted in protests by frontline workers. The provincial leadership cannot prevent local price inflations and cannot secure reliable supply.
  • Shortages of testing kits has become a problem in several districts.
  • Poor turnaround time on Covid-19 testing. Patients are still waiting upwards of four days for their results.
  • The extent of these failures was highlighted when the national Minister of Health, Dr Zweli Mkhize, had to assign a team of medical experts from national to assist in curbing the spread of the virus.
  • The Premier, Oscar Mabuyane, has also been forced to bring in additional support, appointing the ex-MEC for Health in the province, Dr Bevan Goqwana, as well as ex-HOD for the provincial Department of Health, Dr Siva Pillay.

This step is a true indictment on the current leadership in the province, particularly in health.

The Democratic Alliance has offered several recommendations to curb the spread of the virus at a national level, many of which have been adopted.

Our recommendations to turn around the provincial response are as follows:

  1. Ramp up screening and testing efforts, using a targeted approach which has proven extremely effective in the Western Cape. Daily data informs where infection clusters are, and these are targeted in a focussed manner until all residents are screened and tested and every close contact has been tracked and traced.
  2. Develop a daily data dashboard, which is updated in real-time. This dashboard should break data down to sub-district and municipal level and must be accessible to the public, in order to heighten awareness and promote transparency. This would also better inform the response required.
  3. Fill all vacant funded posts as soon as possible, and request extra capacity from a national level to boost our response, particularly as more facilities will be in use as we approach the peak of the infection curve in the next few months.
  4. Place a moratorium on all funerals. Allow only ten or less close family members to attend a sacred burial ceremony that complies with social distancing protocols, until such time as larger gatherings are once again permitted.
  5. Remove the current ineffective leadership. We have submitted a motion to the House, requesting that the Premier remove the MEC of Health from her position, as she does not have the capacity to fulfill the obligations required of her position.

By working together and taking these recommendations on board I believe we can turn the corner in the Eastern Cape.

Regarsd

Nqaba Bhanga
DA EC Provincial Leader

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