Action group seeks solution to problems at Tembisa Hospital
TAC acts on Tembisa Hospital's escalating problems.
On July 18 the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) Tembisa branch invaded Tembisa Hospital to vent their anger against the facility’s chief executive officer, Dr Lekopane Mogaladi.
TAC campaign coordinator Mandla Magaza said the decision to meet the hospital’s CEO was as a result of a number of unsuccessful attempts to meet with the hospital’s management.
“Last year November we sent an email to management with a list of grievances and our intention to address them. But we never got a response.
“The problems faced by the community were escalating. We were never given answers. In January, and since then, we have been visiting the institution to address the problems, but we were always told the CEO was in meetings and unavailable to see us,” said Magaza.
He said the grievances, among others, included staff attitude, medical negligence, staff shortage, service fee and sexual harassment.
Magaza conceded that on “the invasion day”, the CEO had responded to some of their concerns, but that the TAC was unconvinced of his explanation. He said his organisation had given Mogaladi seven days to provide satisfactory answers to their concerns and to take action to remedy the problems at the hospital.
“The CEO has made a request to the TAC to assist him in solving some of the issues.
“He must bring us a full report on the issues, and we will then determine where the TAC can help,” Mgaza explained.
He said the CEO had acknowledged there were instances of medical negligence, and that the staff negative attitude was an issue of great concern, but denied allegations of sexual harassment.
“The CEO said interference by an external organisation called Justice Forum had made it impossible for him to fix staff attitude.
“He said dealing with staff shortage is dependent on the allocated budget which is not enough at the moment.
“The TAC questioned Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa on why people should pay for services at the hospital, but she had denied knowing anything about money being collected from patients,” Magaza said.
Magaza warned that TAC’s further action would be dependent on how the hospital responded to their concerns, expected to be tabled to them in seven days by management.
“If all the grievance are not fully dealt with, we will take the matter to the MEC for health for a proper review,” said Mageza.
