Is this really the end for McCord?

THE on-off-on-off sale of McCord Hospital that has dragged on for more than eight months makes me feel a bit like I’m sitting in the stands at a tennis match watching the ball fly between two players on opposite sides of the court.

Even with the news this week that the ongoing machinations between the provincial Department of Health and McCord Hosptial board had finally flatlined, I remain sceptical although I was a little surprised at the somewhat shocking haste in which the board announced the hospital would officially close its doors on Friday, 20 September. There was a sense of finality in that statement, a point of no return. Or so one could be forgiven thinking.

McCord has served the province of KwaZulu-Natal and in particular the Durban and surrounding communities for more than a century. It has a long and proud history, having been established way back in 1909 by US missionary surgeon Dr James McCord. A quick search on google will tell you McCord is one of the biggest hospitals in KZN and it played a pivotal role in the training of predominantly black doctors, nurses and midwives during the apartheid years. In fact, according to a report in the Eucamenical News, the apartheid government tried unsuccessfully 10 times to shut the hospital down.  It took eight months of wrangling between province and the hospital board, to pull the plug on the hospital at a time when healthcare in this country is in crisis.

News reports this week reported National Hospital Association head, Dumisani Bomela quoting statistics showing the province had just two beds for every thousand of the provincial population in the private and public health sector. I don’t know about you, but that’s a scary thought. When one takes into account the failings in government hospitals that have come to light in the past year or so, in particular Addington Hospital which has had more than its fair share of woes and reports of fraud and corruption, it makes no sense to shut down a fully functioning medical facility. It makes even less sense to lose large numbers of hospital staff to retrenchments.

It is the fact that it makes no sense that I believe offers a glimmer of hope. Perhaps, I’m being foolishly optimistic, but I find it hard to accept that in the back and forth dilly dallying, offers and counter-offers between the Department of Health and McCord board, these professionals appear to have lost sight of the bigger picture.

McCord is situated slap bang in the middle of a province that has one of the highest incidents of HIV/Aids and before its cash flow troubles surfaced, it ran a comprehensive HIV care and treatment programme. Its outpatient ward saw between 15000 and 20 000  people every month.  That’s a lot of people. Sick people. Those numbers will undoubtedly add more pressure onto other crumbling government healthcare facilities in Durban, which will be sorely challenged to meet the need.

One can only hope and pray that sanity will prevail. That by some miracle the stalemate between the board and province will be breached. According to reports, a letter from the Department dated 9 September announced that no further funding would be provided to the hospital and it would not budge from its original offer. The board, on the other hand feels the offer is way below the true value of the hospital and its assets and has chosen shut down the hospital and retrench staff.  The National Education health and Allied Workers Union has indicated it will apply for an urgent court interdict to prevent the hospital’s closure. Even as I write this, there is news that the department is still interested in taking over the historic facility … so does that mean the sale isn’t off the table as we’ve been led to believe?

Will the lights finally go out at McCords, or will it rise from the ashes of failed negotiations and bartering.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.