Skip to main content

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. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Western Cape Health has no jurisdiction over its doctors, senior official claims

On Wednesday June 1, Western Cape Health Department's (WCHD) officer Dr Saadiq Kariem was interviewed on CapeTalk about access to chronic medications for WCHD patients. He spoke of two options: collection at a department facility or delivery to their homes. He made it sound so easy. He didn't mention, though, that at many community health clinics aka day hospitals there's a wait, often hours, to simply collect medicines even when clinics already have patients' current scripts on file. I myself tried that - the first time and last time I'd been to a clinic for collection - but left after two hours without even being attended to. I buy my meds which fortunately are not the expensive kind. People cannot take off hours every month merely to collect meds but the poor have no alternative. I gather problems may be clinic specific. On a related matter, during an after hours phone call that weekend, Groote Schuur Hospital's chief operating officer Dr Belinda Jacobs told ...
1 comment
Read more

Did Beth Engelbrecht jump or was she pushed from a burning platform?

Beth Engelbrecht was head of Western Cape Health Department (WCHD) from 2014 to 2020. Her predecessor Craig Househam ran the department from the late 90s. She was succeeded by Keith Cloete from 1 April 2020.  Engelbrecht's departure was a quiet affair. There was a press briefing January 2020 where Cloete was introduced as her successor (at the Western Cape Government's request, she remained to assist him with the COVID pandemic) but no articles in mainstream media about her tenure. The briefing concentrated on Cloete's and department's priorities.  The absence of press coverage was odd because she held a very important post. Compare that to the fulsome articles when Groote Schuur Hospital CEO Bhavna Patel retired in 2024 and about Eastern Cape health head Rolene Wagner's suspension and reinstatement. WCHD's Jonga Magazine (issue 24, 17 March 2020) ran a farewell message from Engelbrecht in which she wished Cloete well and thanked the department, MEC Nomafrench M...
Post a Comment
Read more

Groote Schuur Hospital CEO Bhavna Patel retires, leaving controversy behind

Groote Schuur Hospital, Western Cape Health Department and NPA cover up death of patient Groote Schuur Hospital's CEO Dr Bhavna Patel retired after 13 years. A public health specialist, she's credited with improvements to the hospital. That may be true. But there's a cold, cynical side to Patel that the fulsome news reports (IOL, News24) do not speak about. Patel retired leaving controversy behind that to an extent insulates the hospital and Western Cape Health Department (WCHD) from the fallout. This is the kind of story, in general and what follows in particular, the media do not publish. In 2017 Patel, Trauma Centre head Andrew Nicol, senior medical officer Ahmed Al Sayari, registrar Marcelle Crowther, junior officer (27-year-old) Mikhail Botha, registrar Mohammed Mayet, and WCHD head Beth Engelbrecht were variously accused of assault, culpable homicide, fraud and violations of national and provincial health laws and policies for the death of a 91-year-old patient on Jul...
Post a Comment
Read more