Two patients are alleged to have died at the Frontier Hospital as a result of ongoing power outages, putting the Eastern Cape department of health in the spotlight for the wrong reasons.
These allegations were made by Jane Cowley, a member of parliament for the Democratic Alliance (DA).
In October, Cowley raised a number of concerns with the public during her monitoring visit to the health department.
She brought up issues with infrastructure, safety and emergency medical services. Also about staff shortages, equipment shortages, and stockouts.
MEC denies allegations, calls it fake news by DA
However, on Tuesday (today), Ntandokazi Capa, the province’s MEC for health, denied the allegations.
Capa said the truth of the matter is that no one lost their lives at Frontier Hospital because of the disruption in electricity supply at the weekend or during the 10 days that the facility had to operate using backup generators last month.
“It is shocking that an elected leader would spread such malicious and fake news without verifying the facts,” she said.
She confirmed that the facility had no electricity. However, no critical patients were moved, she said.
“We can confirm that Frontier Hospital was without power supply to specific sections. That of the X-ray and ICU units, on Saturday, 09/11/2024, from 5pm until Sunday at 3pm.
“The disruption was caused by generator 5 malfunctioning. And the contracted company was only able to fix the generator 22 hours after the outage. This resulted in X-rays being delayed,” Capa added.
Hospital had contingency measures, no patients were compromised
According to Capa, ICU was never compromised. This as the hospital used batteries and recharged the supply units at other sections of the hospital.
“The hospital also had three backup ventilators as part of the contingencies.
“We understand the need for the opposition to point out everything they feel is wrong and needs to be addressed. What is not understandable is the spreading of fake news that not only causes unnecessary panic but also contributes to reputational damage.
“We are calling on our colleagues in the opposition benches to be responsible rather than risk spreading misinformation.
“This is a very serious allegation that we do not take lightly. We will also be following processes of the Legislature so that the honourable member can be held accountable for the statement.”
