By Di Caelers
The whistleblowers who exposed plans to slash the budgets of Groote Schuur and Tygerberg hospitals are sticking to their guns, despite blistering criticism by their boss.
The two doctors are challenging provincial health authorities to prove them wrong.
Last week, they say, outpatient clinics at Groote Schuur started closing, in spite of the lack of specialist clinics, such as ear, nose and throat, in communities.
UCT and Groote Schuur professors Bongani Mayosi, head of medicine, and Del Kahn, head of surgery, broke ranks at the weekend to sound the alarm over the R30-million budget cuts planned for the two hospitals, ahead of the release of the provincial budget on March 6.
They said the cuts would axe more than 150 doctors and nurses from Groote Schuur staff.
Now they are concerned that the issue of staff cuts from the tertiary hospitals is being obfuscated by claims from the province that no health staff will lose their jobs.
"We didn't say anything about retrenchments. What we're concerned about is the loss of those people to Groote Schuur specifically," Kahn said today.
Waiting lists at the hospital were "out of control", with more than 1 000 patients waiting for hernia surgery, for example.
"We're desperately short of nursing staff. Our (operating) theatre list has been cut by half and if we lose another 116 nurses we will become almost dysfunctional on the surgical side," Kahn said on Monday.
The proposals, contained in the provincial budget plans for 2007/08, would lop R19-million off Groote Schuur's budget, which would be achieved by the closure of 100 beds and a 7 percent staff reduction - 33 doctors, 116 nurses and 39 physio-therapists, social workers and pharmacists.
Health MEC Pierre Uys was quoted on Monday as saying the budget was not yet final, but that no one would lose their jobs.
The DA health spokesperson, Gareth Morgan, said on Monday that he was extremely concerned about cutbacks to hospital budgets.
"There is clearly something amiss with the planning, considering Minister (Trevor) Manuel tells us we're running at a budget surplus," Morgan said.
"Why are we then cutting back on our most important resources?"
On Saturday, Dr Craig Househam, head of health in the Western Cape, hit at Mayosi and Kahn for breaking ranks, saying it was "highly unfortunate" that they had "deemed it appropriate" to make the plans public.
"They are members of the management team of Groote Schuur and so privy to discussions about the way the hospital is run and the budget allocated," he said.
Kahn and Mayosi had "broken confidence".
But Kahn said on Monday that they had received "200 percent" support from their colleagues and that the best possible result would be if they were proved wrong.
Mayosi said they stood by their statement, and would welcome it if Uys could state categorically that no budget cuts would be made.
"If there are not going to be any budget cuts, then there is no issue and we'll withdraw our statement."
Mayosi and Kahn say provincial health authorities are also planning to cut off an important source of funding for the cash-strapped tertiary hospitals.
They will no longer allow funds from fee-paying patients to be ploughed back into the academic institution which bills them, the duo say.
The money would in future be diverted into "other projects".