Klerksdorp Record, Stilfontein - The NW Health Department last week issued a letter saying it will grant a hundred bed licence to Stilfontein’s revamped Duff Scott hospital - provided its’ management comply with a check list within six months.
This would entail laying in gas lines that enable theatre operations - at a cost of nearly R30 million which remains unaffordable to the hospital’s shareholders. CEO Annisia Botha says the hospital could legitimately open its doors tomorrow to create the necessary cash flow - without theatres for the moment.
The former mine hospital, purchased, refurbished, rehabilitated and secured after being stripped by Zama-zamas, has been patient-ready for five years. However official red tape, delays and what some local politicians are saying are “very questionable motives,” have prevented it opening its doors.
The newest shot-in-the-arm for Stilfontein is a R1,5 billion new investment by Harmony Gold, much acclaimed by local ruling politicians and Premier Lazarus Mokgosi. Harmony also committed to R2 billion investment in renewable energy.
“Through our R7 billion investment in 2022 we managed to preserve six thousand jobs for locals, extending the mine’s lifespan by twenty years. In 2020, we acquired Mine Waste Solutions, leading to an investment of over R2 billion, and we have created close to 2,500 hundred jobs, 70% of which are locals,” Nel said.
Yet a less confidence-instilling development is the appearance of five top former North-West provincial health department officials on Fraud and Tender charges on June 6 this year.
Sivenathi Gunya, Communications Officer for the North-West Division of the National Prosecuting Authority confirmed that the two former NW Health Heads of Department, one Chief Director, a Director and a Deputy Director appeared again in court.
The charges, unrelated to the Duff Scott Hospital controversy, stem from a project by the North-West Department of Health to construct hospitals in Vryburg and Ledig. However, investigations revealed that the service providers only partially fulfilled their contractual obligations.
The state further alleges that senior officials from the department acted in common purpose to approve these payments, despite the services not being fully delivered, resulting in a financial loss of over R86 million. It is also alleged that the department’s supply chain policies and bidding processes were disregarded during the appointment of the service providers.
The latest apparent willingness by the Health Department to grant a licence to Duff Scott Hospital is seen as a political move to create “positive optics,” for reasons that remain unclear.
Last week’s health department letter reached Botha three months after she once again asked for clarity on the hospital’s licensing. Duff Scott Hospital would alleviate pressure on the two hugely over-subscribed public hospitals in Klerksdorp. Two other provincial hospitals closed in 2021 and 2022.
According to Botha, opening the doors of Duff Scott Hospital with its willingness to partner with the province and charge affordable prices, (plus free patient transport), would improve healthcare delivery and further boost the economy in what is now considered the poorest province in South Africa.
She claims to have spent over R80 million upgrading, repairing and providing security to protect the former mine-hospital. Botha brought in high-threat security for the hospital following zama-zama-looting and decimation in 2015, (a year after her consortium bought the hospital). However, the health department declined to renew the previous 295 bed license from 2013, thus preventing the hospital from operating.
Asked what the current outstanding requirements, (if any), were for the hospital’s license application to be finalized, Lehari said it was a “progress report on operating 100 beds,’’ which his officials found compliant during their last inspection on August 15 last year.
“Once the management indicates the facility readiness, the department will conduct a pre-occupation inspection so as to issue a license,” he added.
Botha says she’s in a paradoxical bind: she needs the license to build patient and operational capacity. “You can’t chop off somebody’s leg and then claim they can’t walk because they cannot afford to buy a prosthetic leg!” she declares.
Botha says Duff Scott cannot afford security and more upgrading in the ongoing hiatus. She wants to build up to the full 295-bed capacity and says a mere 100-bed license, while helpful, will hugely impede its ability to become a fully-fledged operation.
The provincial health department had inspected the hospital, “and we’ve complied with most of their tick list like elbow taps - but putting in gas lines at R30 million (for example), is a financial bridge too far when we have no income stream,” she says.
Her final appeal to the health department this week was, “please show me the certificate, so I can open this hospital and get on with the business of healthcare.”
