Western Cape municipalities ‘failing to provide adequate health care’

Published Jun 25, 2019

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Cape Town - A national survey by an independent think tank has found that municipalities in the Western Cape failed to provide adequate access to healthcare services.

While the province has many of the best-run municipalities in the country, it performs worst in terms of access to health care, according to a survey by Good Governance Africa (GGA).

The pan-African non-profit regularly publishes research and trend analysis on governance topics about the continent.

The research divided high-performing and low-performing municipalities based on their financial audits.

In scoring on social services per province, the survey found that municipalities in the Western Cape performed the poorest in terms of access to health care. The survey asked questions based on the services and quality that a primary healthcare facility should offer.

Access to health care was measured by the total number of people per clinics and healthcare facilities in the municipality. The survey noted that in addition to a shortage of doctors and nurses in the worst-performing municipalities as far as access to health was concerned, there was also a big shortage of community healthworkers.

Marika Champion, of the provincial Health Department, rejected the survey’s results. “According to the Stats SA Household Survey in 2016, the Western Cape has the highest percentage of households living within 30 minutes of their nearest health facility, at 91.5%,” she said.

“While about 70% of the population is in the Cape metro, the department has made strides to ensure that rural patients are also served,” added Champion.

According to the province’s budget for 2019/20, health receives the biggest slice of the provincial budget, which amounts to more than R24billion, which is 37% of the total provincial budget. Champion said: “Considering distances between health facilities, the department ensures better rural access to health care via our HealthNet patient transport system, which operates 230 pick-up points across the Province. Annually about 150000 patients are transported to healthcare facilities.”

But Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) provincial chairperson Vuyani Macotha said: ”The reality is that we are sitting on a time bomb.

“There are clinics in rural parts of the province that are open from 7am to 4pm, but what happens to those who need access to medical services after 4pm in those areas?” Macotha asked.

“We need a health system that delivers to the people as per the provincial government’s constitutional mandate. In urban areas, such as Khayelitsha, there is a high burden of patients; some wait all day and leave unattended while others sleep on the floor.”

A year ago TAC released a report, Western Cape: The State of Health, in which it said: “State of art hospitals look impressive on the outside, yet on the inside patients lie without dignity on the floor.”

Macotha said: “In my view nothing much has changed.”

ANC spokesperson on health in the province, Rachel Windvogel, who also sits on the board of a health NGO in Swellendam said: “In rural parts of the province we see serious shortages of medical staff and that is a real problem we are sitting with.”

The GGA’s survey, Audit Performance and Service Delivery at Local Government Level, was based on 1142 people surveyed in the Western Cape, Free State and the North West.

The NPO’s Government Performance Index ranks 213 local municipalities from best to worst based on quality of administration, economic development and service delivery.

@MwangiGithahu

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Cape Argus

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