Tamar Kahn
6 May 2008
Cape Town — Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang yesterday climbed into the row between rural doctors and KwaZulu-Natal health MEC Peggy Nkonyeni, saying it was "absolutely incorrect" for the chief medical officer of Manguzi Hospital, Mark Blaylock, to have dumped the MEC's portrait in the bin.
"It smells of anarchy," she told reporters attending a government briefing session at Parliament.
Blaylock dumped Nkonyeni's picture in the bin after hearing the MEC tell staff that rural doctors did not care about patients, and were concerned only about profits. He and his colleagues were already upset by the censure meted out to Dr Colin Pfaff, who secured donor funding to provide a two-drug cocktail of antiretrovirals to HIV-positive pregnant women. He pleaded guilty to a charge of misconduct and was suspended for a month without pay.
Tshabalala-Msimang said Blaylock could have voiced his concerns in more appropriate ways. "In this country there are lots and lots of channels, forums, meetings, where you can articulate unhindered whatever your dissatisfactions are. It's possible ... even to phone the MEC herself," the minister said.
Nkonyeni triggered fresh controversy last week when she claimed in her budget speech that rural doctors, including those at Manguzi Hospital, were racist and abusive. She said she had established a task team to probe allegations of racism, ill treatment of staff, and abuse of departmental facilities by Blaylock and other doctors working in the province's rural hospitals.
Blaylock's lawyer, Mark Heywood, has asked the Human Rights Commission to investigate the MEC for her alleged harassment of Manguzi Hospital doctors. The Southern African Clinicians Society and the Rural Doctors' Association of SA have asked the African National Congress to investigate the issue, too.
Tshabalala-Msimang also provided an update on the government's free AIDS-drug programme, which had enrolled a cumulative total of 456000 patients on treatment by February, of whom 39759 were children. She did not provide any indication of how many of these patients had died, or had stopped taking their medication.
She said the health department was also making progress in its efforts to improve the cure rate for tuberculosis (TB), and had established 72 "tracer teams" across SA to help track down patients who were not sticking to their pill-taking schedules.
SA's TB epidemic has surged on the back of the HIV crisis. Low cure rates and poor infection control in some hospitals have seen growing numbers of patients infected with drugresistant strains of the disease.
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In addition, should this investigation that Ms.Nkonyeni has requested, prove that her statements and accusations are incorrect, unfounded or untrue - SHE should be responsible for footing the bill of the investigation. This no longer appears to be a Health Issue but rather a personal vendetta, and personal vendetta should not be funded by tax payers' monies.
South Africans need to acquire the habit of holding their politicians accountable and responsible. This investigation seems irresponsible and unfounded especially in light of the statement prepared by Dr. Immelman. If this turns out to be true, Ms. Nkonyeni needs to… [Read Full Text]
How sadly typical that rather than keeping medicine and the peoples' medical requirements in the forefront of the Health Department, this Minister and her boss, prefer to keep themselves and their personal vendettas, theories and assumed personal slights in the headlines.
It is high time that the ANC government started selecting MEPs and other high profile political figures on their qualifications, eihics, professional capabilities and mannerism, rather than their personal claim for celebrity! In addition to this, both of these women should be well enough educated to realise that their playing the "Racist" card is not only fraudulent but also… [Read Full Text]