DA requests health committee to invite Dr De Maayer to share his concerns with Parliament

25 May 2022

Note to Editors: Please find an attached soundbite by Michele Clarke MP.

The DA has written to the chairperson of the parliamentary portfolio committee on health, Dr Kenneth Leonard Jacobs, to request that Dr Tim De Maayer be invited to share his experiences regarding the serious problems plaguing the health care sector.

On Monday, Dr De Maayer wrote an open letter to the Health Department decrying the continuous decline of the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital in Johannesburg. He wrote of the horrendous conditions under which health care workers strive provide proper care for their patients, and the many ways in which the system continuous to fail young patients.

Dr De Maayer’s letter highlights how money is wasted on negligence lawsuit compensations, while it should be used to address the problems and prevent lawsuits in the first place.

According to Dr De Maayer, there have been repeated attempts to raise the concerns with management, “including two reports on the critical state of the neonatal wards and obstetric services in 2016 and 2021, and a more recent letter on 11 April 2022 detailing the disastrous state of the hospital.”

Without avail. That is why the DA is also requesting that the Gauteng Department of Health appear before the committee regarding the serious decline in their health care facilities and on their proposed solutions to ensure there are no further problems in the future.

The DA applauds Dr De Maayer’s bravery in coming forward. In a country where whistle blowers often get the short end of the stick, he has spoken truth to power.

The Gauteng Health Department, and indeed the national Department of Health, need to implement urgent and extensive interventions to all public health care facilities. South Africans all across the country are suffering greatly because money is wasted, looted, wrongfully expended and wrongly prioritized.

In fact, the current public health care system is proof that the ANC government is unable to implement and successfully run universal health care. Should the NHI Bill be implemented, the few functioning health care facilities in the country will no doubt follow in the footsteps of the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital.

Issued by Michele Clarke, DA Shadow Minister of Health, 25 May 2022