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Update on Health Ombudsman's investigation into Groote Schuur Hospital

This is an update on the Office of Health Standards Compliance’s investigation into Groote Schuur Hospital and Western Cape Health Department (see here).

On May 9 I wrote to Monnatau Tlholoe and Phumzile Phiri, director and assistant director of OHSC's complaints centre, asking for progress as I had heard nothing from their Stella Hartzenberg who had promised to report back.  I cited the HPCSA's lack of communication too.

Phiri replied they "do not conduct investigation parallel with other regulatory bodies" and I must follow-up with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA).  I replied the HPCSA only conducts disciplinary investigations of medical practitioners as individuals and not healthcare providers/institutions like hospitals and health departments, and the public has no recourse when parts of the system itself are at fault. I told her I shall not waste more time on them.

Apparently, OHSC hadn't conducted a proper review, or any, of my complaint since my emails and letter to Hartzenberg (here).  This is common practice by these offices, i.e. the country's regulators, police and prosecution service NPA, and they dismiss complaints without examining them.  In fact, in my May 9 email to Tlholoe and  Phiri (see here) I sarcastically wrote the country’s regulators were ineffective and “my advice to the public is not to waste time and energy submitting complaints. I'm not sure what purpose they serve except as another layer of bureaucracy”.

However, then the unexpected occurred. On Tuesday May 14 Phiri phoned me. She had reviewed the letters and documents I sent before. She noted I had implicated nurses too, and that they do have jurisdiction.  They would assign an investigator. She sent me forms of consent to access my mother’s hospital records and an official complaint form.  I sent the completed forms the following Monday.

While this is positive step, I'm not getting my hopes up as in my mother's case – OHSC, HPCSA, police and NPA – there has been no inclination to investigate.

Postscript

I learned two weeks ago the office of Cape Town's Inquest Magistrate has my mother's docket. I wrote to the chief clerk but have no information as to its status (she didn't respond). Cape Town's director of public prosecutions (NPA) mismanaged the case almost from the outset in 2017. The docket went back and forth during 2018, them apparently not knowing what to do with it especially after they allowed political interference and pressure from former premier Helen Zille. 



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