Tamar Kahn
31 July 2007
Johannesburg — CAPE TOWN -- The Democratic Alliance (DA) yesterday added its voice to trade union federation Cosatu in calling on Health Minister Manto Tshabalala- Msimang to appoint an independent commission of enquiry into infant deaths at Frere Hospital in Eastern Cape, and to place the facility under national administration pending the outcome of the investigation.
The DA's call is the latest twist in a two-week saga that began when the Daily Dispatch reported alarmingly high infant mortality rates at Frere Hospital's overstretched maternity unit: at least 42 out of every 1000 babies born there died. The national norm is 24 deaths per 1000 births, said the newspaper.
In the wake of the ensuing media attention and a surprise visit by Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routeledge, who described the hospital crisis as a "national emergency", Tshabalala-Msimang hand-picked a task team headed by her adviser, Ronnie Green Thompson, to investigate.
She subsequently provided an overview of the team's findings at a press conference on July 22, but only made their report public yesterday after the DA filed an application under the Public Access to Information Act to try to force her hand. The party's health spokesman, Mike Waters, said he had failed to get the report from either the minister's staff or the chairman of Parliament's health committee, James Ngculu.
Although the minister sought to downplay conditions at Frere Hospital in the statement she released at the press conference, the report makes it clear that the facility is critically understaffed and poorly managed.
The task team, which included the department's head of hospital services, Thabo Sibeko, and its director for women's health and genetics, Nat Khaole, highlighted equipment shortages, lack of maintenance and serious shortcomings in the institution's infection control and hygiene.
Waters disputed the minister's claim that no babies had died due to equipment failures, saying infants had died because staff had failed to procure an essential part for the generator that supplied their incubators with electricity. He said there had been "astounding professional neglect" by staff at Frere Hospital.
He said the report was a superficial "whitewash", and disputed its authors' claim that their visits were unannounced.
"It's a big cover-up" he told Business Day.
Waters, who represents the DA on Parliament's health committee, said MP s planned to visit Mount Frere and other hospitals in Eastern Cape next week.
Spokesman for Tshabalala-Msimang, Sibane Mngadi, said the health department was "concerned about the alliance that had been forged between the DA and Cosatu" over the Frere Hospital crisis.
Waters and Cosatu's spokes-man, Patrick Craven, said Mngadi's concern was unfounded, saying there was no collusion.
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