Pretoria - Another mentally ill patient has died in one of the remaining NGOs that were part of the Gauteng Mental Health Marathon Project (GMHMP) due to be closed immediately by the Department of Health.
DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC Jack Bloom said he had been informed of another death of a patient transferred from Life Esidemeni (LE) to the Shammah NGO in Cullinan.
"According to his brother, he died this week and was in an emaciated condition."
"This gives urgency to the need to close down the dodgy NGOs and transfer the patients to decent facilities as recommended by the Health Ombudsman's report on 94 previously identified deaths," he said.
Gauteng Provincial Government spokesperson Thabo Masebe, confirmed the death of the 60-year-old mentally ill patient at the Shammah NGO. Masebe said the patient had a chronic illness and had started complaining in November last year of pains in his abdomen.
The man was then taken to Mamelodi Hospital and discharged back into the care of Shammah NGO.
This past Sunday he was said to have complained of the same pains and when the ambulance arrived he was found dead.
"The cause of death is not yet known. We are awaiting pathology tests, and can't say it was hunger or malnutrition."
"Shammah is one of NGOs that the Minister wants to close down," he said.
Health Minister Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi announced on Tuesday that seven of the 27 NGOs that were transferred Life Esidemeni (LE) patients and found to have been operating without proper licensing had been immediately closed.
The minister said through assessments of the facilities, they had last week taken the decision to close the remaining unlicensed facilities.
The moves by Motsoaledi were taken as part of fulfilling the 18 recommendations that the Health Ombudsmans made when he delivered his final report surrounding the deaths of 94 mentally ill patients moved from LE Health Care Centre's.
Around 1371 patients were moved from April 2016 to 27 NGOs around the province as part of the GMHMP.