Boitumelo Hospital strike as a result of failing Free State Health

Issued by Mariette Pittaway MPL – DA Spokesperson on Health and Education in the Free State Legislature
06 Feb 2023 in Press Statements

Note to editors: Please find attached a video by Mariette Pittaway MPL

The DA in the Free State has written 12 times to the MEC and HOD of Health in the province over the past six weeks to draw their attention to the issues at Boitumelo Regional Hospital. We have also ensured that the Premier, Sisi Ntombela, was informed in the hope that she will intervene in our pleas for help.

Predictably, the Boitumelo Hospital staff have begun a strike action, leaving the community to deal with both the collapse of the once “state-of-the-art” Kroonstad medical facility and the failure to give them access to basic healthcare services. The MEC of Health, as well as the Department of Health in the Free State, and the institution’s poor administration are fully responsible for the strike action. They were well aware of the problems and desperate conditions that patients and willing staff members find themselves in.

While the right to strike action is guaranteed by the South African Constitution, it may not infringe on citizens’ constitutional rights, such as the right to obtain healthcare and the right not to be denied emergency medical care.

The families of patients who have not received access to medical care since the strike action started have contacted the DA. We then got in touch with the MEC and HOD of Health who assured us that everything is under control.

During an oversight visit to Boitumelo Regional Hospital today, the DA found no nurses on duty. Patients have also not received medication since Saturday, as the students who are tending to the patients are not authorised to dispense medication. Doctors from surrounding towns are assisting where they possibly can.

The situation is NOT under control, and the DA, once again, request the newly tasked ANC government in the Free State to act responsibly to prevent more lives from being lost due to the lack of health care in this regional hospital. The DA will lodge a complaint with the Human Rights Commission to investigate the situation at Boitumelo Hospital.