These are the things which make Prof Ashraf Coovadia recall the period around 1994 when we were inspired and hopeful. He said, and I quote: "We believed we were going to offer better health care for all but we are now far from where we should be and hoping to be. It is a dream gone wrong." [Interjections.]
The Bongani Regional Hospital is not an isolated case. The Madwaleni Hospital, which is about 100 km from Mthatha where the hon Chairperson comes from, was once renowned for excellence. It offered an antiretroviral programme for HIV patients, a round-the-clock caesarean service and even provided home-based care to chronically ill patients. Now there is only one physician and just two clinical associates to help this hospital serve more than 260 000 people. In addition, the hospital theatre is no longer active. No emergency caesarean sections can be performed, and patients who need caesarean sections are referred to the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha, which is a one and a half hours' drive away.
The hospital has ceased to do X-rays. The facility has tried to procure new X-ray machines for the past two years after the original one broke, but the health department has refused every request. Patients requiring X-rays are transported to the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital for radiography and use the Mthatha hospital's X-ray machines once every Friday. These patients return very late to Madwaleni, and they cannot see the doctors because they come in late on Friday afternoons. They are only able to come back and see the doctors on Monday. This isn't only the case in Mthatha.
In Limpopo, in the Vhembe region, Suzan Mudau tried to have her child immunised with the DTaP - diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis - vaccine ...