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Without a doubt the Free State Provincial Department of Health is near total collapse. We have spent the last two days conducting oversight visits at various public health facilities and the conditions we have found them in point to a crisis in the Free State health system.
 
The Free State Provincial Department of Health entered the current financial year with a R700 million shortfall due to accruals incurred the previous financial year. This leaves the department unable to meet its financial obligations and negatively affects the department’s ability to deliver healthcare services.
 
The collapse of the Free State Department of Health could have been avoided had the provincial executive adopted and implemented tried and tested administrative and financial mechanisms, like those the DA government in the Western Cape have implemented. The problems experienced here in the Free State are nothing new and neither are the solutions. The extent to which the situation has deteriorated in the Free State is indicative of a lack of political will and an embedded culture of unaccountability.
 
During our oversight visit to Pelonomi Regional Hospital yesterday we were met with the stark reality of the extent of collapse of health services. Some of the issues we have identified include:

• Patients with bone fractures are accommodated within the referral ward on stretchers due to a shortage of bed space. One patient with a fracture has not seen the doctor in 11 days with sub optimal pain management;
• The hospital does not have hot water. Nursing staff and patients boil water in coffee urns. This may have serious implications for infection control;
• Patients are forced to bring their own blankets and pillows to hospital due to medical linen shortages;
• The hospital regularly runs out of medical consumables;
• According to hospital staff there are three fully equipped operating theatres on the seventh floor out of operation due to a shortage of anaesthetic machines. We viewed these theatres and they are now being used as storage rooms for dumped equipment and surgical tools. In one operating theatre a much needed neonatal resuscitation unit is left in storage. This is millions of rands of equipment that could be used to save lives;
• At the neonatal ward the hospital only has access to two ventilators serving 40 patients;
• Some patients in the orthopaedic ward have been waiting for surgery for more than three months;
• According to medical staff at the hospital, only four operating theatres are functional and a fifth is out of commission because it is not equipped with an anaesthetic machine. 

The situation at other public health medical facilities are much the same.

We are now more than ever convinced that the only way to avoid a total collapse of public health services in the Free State is to place the provincial department of health under a Section 100(b) administration. The DA has already submitted a letter to the National Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, requesting him to initiate the process of placing the provincial department under administration.
 
In terms of Section 27(1) of the Constitution “everyone has the right to have access to (a) health care services, including reproductive health care”.  Section 27(2) states that “The State must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of each of these rights.” Furthermore, section 27(3) states: “No one may be refused emergency medical treatment.” In other words Section 27 places a positive obligation on the state for the realisation of socio-economic rights.

Should Minister Motsoaledi fail to initiate the process for placing the provincial department under administration, within a reasonable time, the DA will initiate legal proceedings with a view to compel the minister to intervene in terms of Section 100(b)(ii) which requires the maintenance of “essential national standards or meet established minimum standards for the rendering of a service”, even if means taking it to the Constitutional Court.  
 
The status quo, which infringes on the constitutional rights of our people, cannot be allowed to continue.
 
The DA will do everything possible to ensure that these rights are upheld, and as soon as possible.