Chairperson and hon members, in March this year we went as a committee to Cecilia Makiwane Hospital in the Eastern Cape. This was prompted by the death of 29 babies and infants during the month of February 2011.
On the visit we wanted to confirm whether it was true that 29 babies had died in one month. Secondly, we wanted to assess what the cause of death was, if it was possible to find the cause of death. Thirdly, we wanted to see whether this could have been prevented or not.
We visited the hospital and we took a walk around it. We went to the labour ward, the neonatal ward, high care, intensive care unit, ICU and the area where the mothers lodge. We went to meet the professionals - the doctors and nurses - and the hospital management. We didn't meet the MEC and the provincial officials at that time.
We definitely confirmed that 29 babies and infants had indeed died, and that the cause of death for all of them was natural causes. Specifically it was infections, and some of them died of septicaemia.
Our conclusion was that these deaths were unnecessary and could have been prevented if there had been a good referral system and a good ambulance service. If there had been no shortage of good, working equipment, these deaths could probably have been prevented. If there had been consumables, those for cleaning the hospital, this could probably have been prevented. If there had been no overcrowding in the wards because of the poor referral system, we think this could have been prevented. If there had been no shortage of staff, especially the professional staff - the nurses and doctors - this would probably not have happened. If there had been decentralisation of some of the work and good primary health care, this could have been prevented. Lastly, if there had been good family planning, we think this could have been prevented.
We recommended that the management make sure that consumables were ordered early and that they were used to make sure that the hospital was clean. We recommended that the shortage of staff should be addressed as a matter of urgency. We also recommended that they should make sure that the equipment was working and that it was in good condition, especially things like the cardiotocographs, CTGs. We wanted them to make sure that primary health care and the referral systems were working well in the Eastern Cape in order to ensure that those things did not happen.
Chairperson, let me just analyse the Eastern Cape a little bit. The Eastern Cape Department of Health is one of those departments that started working after 1994, with all the challenges that came with the apartheid system. The Eastern Cape Department of Health, like the departments in all the other provinces, started at a very negative point.
Then what happened is this. They started working, the morale of the staff was going on well, and they were united. They started building clinics and hospitals in the Eastern Cape. In fact, they worked so hard that at a certain stage - I am sure some of us don't know this - they had an unqualified audit report in the Department of Health in that region! That showed that at least something was happening in the Eastern Cape department of health.
The problems started when the then leadership of the Eastern Cape interfered with what was happening in the department of health. You know, in 12 years in the Eastern Cape there were two MECs and two HODs. That was in 12 years. After the disaster of the interference by the leadership started, I think within four years there were four changes of MEC and the problems started. The interference was caused by the leadership that was in the ANC then, but fortunately all of them moved over to Cope, which shows that those were the people who actually destroyed the Eastern Cape department of health. Thank you very much.
There was no debate.