Sequel to Frere Hospital: National Health Department must send task team to Mahatma Ghandi Hospital

Figures on the deaths of 407 babies since January this year at the Mahatma Ghandi Hospital in Phoenix, Durban (see here), show that this hospital is the sequel to the Frere Hospital outrage in 2007. The DA calls for the National Department of Health to urgently send a task team to investigate the situation at the hospital.

Two years ago the country was deeply saddened over the disclosure that over 2000 babies had been still born at Frere Hospital over the previous 14 years, and almost 200 in that year alone. Although no specific figures were given for still births in the parliamentary reply on Mahatma Ghandi, it would appear that this hospital has an equally dismal record for keeping babies alive.

It is well known that South Africa is one of only twelve countries in the world where maternal mortality rates are increasing. This is partly because public hospitals do not have the staff, equipment and medicines to treat basic and easily curable conditions.

The reply on Mahatma Ghandi indicated that more than half the deaths were the result of pulmonary tuberculosis. This means that mothers were not receiving the appropriate treatment for TB, as well as for HIV, which is often the underlying reason for TB infection, and were therefore passing it on to their unborn children, who were then themselves not receiving the care and medication they needed after birth.

The next highest category of cause of death - low birth weight - is also indicative of poor treatment, because proper use of incubators should have kept those babies alive.

It was revealed at the time of the Frere Hospital scandal that the CEO of the complex of which Frere formed part, was an ANC cadre with only a politics qualification and no experience in hospital management. We are unable to find out what the qualifications of Mahatma Ghandi's CEO are, because the Department of Health has still not given us the information on this that we asked for in June.

We will continue to press for this hospital to be fully investigated.

Statement issued by Mike Waters, MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of health, October 13 2009

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter