NCOP
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO. 6
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 11 February 2011
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 1)
Mrs E C van Lingen (DA-EC) to ask the Minister of Health:
(1) Whether there are any medical doctors who are stationed at the
Alexander Bay Hospital; if not, what health care professionals are
employed at the hospital who meet the occupational health and safety
standards that is required by Alexkor; if so, (a) how many medical
doctors are employed at Alexander Bay Hospital on a (i) full-time or
(ii) part-time basis and (b) what are the terms and conditions of
their employment in each case;
(2) whether a private medical practitioner provides any services to the
Alexander Bay Hospital; if so, (a) what services, (b) what
qualifications does the medical practitioner have in terms of
occupational health and safety regulations and (c) what is the name of
the medical practitioner;
(3) whether the said private medical practitioner is stationed in
Alexander Bay; if not, (a) why not and (b) where is the practitioner
stationed; if so, what are the relevant details?
CW06E
REPLY:
1) According to the Northern Cape Department of Health, there are no
medical doctors stationed at the Alexander Bay Hospital. However,
there is one medical doctor, employed by the Provincial Department of
Health stationed at Springbok Hospital on a full-time basis, who
visits Alexander Bay Hospital once a week. He is responsible for all
the State patients and does not see Occupational Health patients as
they are served by Occupational Care of South Africa (OCSA). The
Occupational Health and Safety Standards required by Alexkor are met
by Alexkor themselves who contracted this service out to the
Occupational Care of South Africa (OCSA). This was part of the
agreement undertaken by Alexkor and the Department of Health when the
Alexander Bay Hospital was taken over in 2007 by the Department of
Health as per section 197 of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995.
a) Not applicable;
b) Not applicable;
2) No, please refer to the response in (1) above.
3) There is a private medical practitioner (GP) running his own private
practice from an Alexkor building and he does not work from the
Alexander Bay Hospital premises. He is available on Tuesday, Wednesday
and Thursday from 8 am to 5 pm and on occasion does calls after hours.
END.