About 200 out of 800 prostate cancer patients at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital (CMJH) will probably be missing when the hospital tries to contact them after delays in providing radiation treatment.
Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko admits this in a written reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature.
She says the backlog of prostate cancer patients at CMJH includes 268 patients from 2015-2020, and 539 patients from 2021 to 2024. This totals 800 patients but is “likely to reduce to approximately 600 when the uncontactable patients are removed.”
This is appalling as many of the missing patients are probably dead because of the delay in providing radiation therapy. How can it be that some patients have been on the backlog list for as long as ten years? And if they were on hormone therapy, how could their contact details have been lost?
Tellingly, the department was not able to answer my question about how many cancer patients in the last three years have not been able to have radiation treatment within the prescribed three-month period after surgery or chemotherapy.
They say this is because all or most of them are not contactable despite attempts to contact them with the contact details available.
Some of the 600 prostate cancer patients who can be contacted will probably also die because radiation treatment will be too late to benefit them.
This is why the Gauteng High Court has found that the department’s failure to provide radiation treatment to cancer patients is unlawful and unconstitutional.
The scandal is that R250 million earmarked for urgent radiation treatment was returned unspent to Treasury. More lives have probably been lost because of this uncaring incompetence than the 144 mental patients who died in the Life Esidimeni disaster when they were sent to illegal NGOs.
The ANC should stop protecting MEC Nkomo-Ralehoko as they did when blocking my motion of censure in the Gauteng Legislature for her failure to work with cancer interest groups to ensure speedy treatment to save the lives of cancer patients.
The DA Gauteng will continue to demand that Premier Panyaza Lesufi fire the Health MEC and her Head of Department Lesiba Malotana for their negligence in this matter.
A DA-run health department would ensure that competent people spend budgets effectively to save the lives of patients.