Note to Editors: Please find an Enlgish soundbite from DA MPL, Dr Jack Bloom here.
The treatment of thousands of cancer patients in Gauteng is threatened by long delays in getting biopsies from the Johannesburg Anatomical Pathology Laboratory, which is poorly run and has huge staff vacancies.
Joburg pathology lab is crippled by staff exodus, mismanagement, and excessive biopsy delays.
• Patients wait up to 3 months for urgent cancer biopsy results.
• Lab had 19 pathologists – only 3 remain.
• 12 000 samples unprocessed, some dating back to last year.
• Doctors unable to start treatment, survival chances plummet.
• DA demands urgent intervention by Gauteng Health MEC.
The laboratory is crowded with unprocessed reports and piles of samples in buckets.
See photos here, here, here, and here.
Suspected cancer cases should get priority, but doctors say it used to take 7-10 days to get the biopsy results of a lump in the breast, but it now takes 4-6 weeks. Mastectomy results used to be 3 to 4 weeks but can now take three months.
Other badly affected biopsies are for suspected prostate, skin, and organ cancers.
Excessive waiting times for biopsy results causes huge anxiety for patients whose survival chances plummet without a speedy diagnosis.
The laboratory used to have 19 anatomical pathologists, but only three remain. Five medical technologists have also left recently.
The National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) administers this laboratory, which is headed by Dr Reubina Wadee. According to sources, the problems started when she was appointed early last year and created a hostile work environment that saw the departure of highly qualified staff.
Another failing is that she scrapped the night shift, so the laboratory no longer works around the clock.
Huge numbers of patients are affected as this laboratory services hospitals and clinics in Johannesburg, the East and West Rand and the Vaal – North Gauteng is served by a laboratory at Steve Biko Hospital, and Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital has its own laboratory.
Doctors are unable to start with urgent treatment if patients don’t get speedy biopsies, so the disastrously slow processing of biopsy samples worsens the cancer treatment crisis in Gauteng.
It is so bad that cancer NGOs have taken the Gauteng Health Department to court for not providing urgent radiation treatment to thousands of patients.
My colleague in Parliament Michele Clarke will be asking questions to the National Health Department about the poor management and backlogs at the Johannesburg laboratory.
The DA in Gauteng will request Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko to intervene urgently in this dire situation to ensure biopsy results are speeded up to save the lives of patients.