Western Cape Will Not Agree to Centralisation of Hospitals - Western Cape Minister of Health

Groote Schuur Hospital and Tygerberg Hospital are Western Cape provincial institutions, functioning properly and we will not agree to the nationalisation of these facilities, says Western Cape Minister of Health, Theuns Botha.

His comments follow the announcement by National Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, that the National Department of Health intends taking over South Africa's 10 largest hospitals.

Minister Botha says he invites Minister Motsoaledi to engage with the Western Cape Government on this issue in terms of the Intergovernmental Regulations Act and to refrain from improper statements regarding the unconstitutional nationalisation of Western Cape facilities.

Minister Botha says, “Various provincial health departments across the country are collapsing, maladministered, corrupt and unable to render a proper health service.”

The ANC's solution to the problem is to nationalise central and or academic hospitals. The National Department of Health itself had not been able to obtain a clean audit, or to administratively prepare the tenders for procurement of medicine for provinces on time - resulting in regular out of stock of medicine situations, says Minister Botha.  

“The ANC does not have the ability to get malfunctioning provinces to improve, to address corruption, to ensure budgetary discipline, to improve management or to replace political incompetency. Yet, the ANC regards itself able to step in as the saviour to nationalise central hospitals. What about the spectrum of health services offered by provinces - the clinics, the regional and district hospitals, the Emergency Medical Services (EMS), the Forensic Pathology Services (FPS) , the various programmes, e.g. infectious diseases, women's health?”  

The solution is not to shift bad service delivery from one incompetent level to the other, denying the true reasons, but rather to face the reasons and problems directly. It is political incompetency that leads to maladministration, overspending and poor service delivery - nothing else!  

In the Western Cape health services, including central hospitals, are functioning properly, and the reasons are political competence, proper administration, good management and budgetary discipline. As political executive functionaries, the provincial government is accountable to the DA to perform on standard in our government, failing which the party will take political action to replace us - the very thing the ANC denies and does not do.