Tim De Maayer News Today

Major opposition parties rejected the NHI Bill. But with the support of five one- or two-seat parties, the ANC got the necessary approval on Tuesday.

In some public hospitals, authorities abuse the law to cover up their incompetence, caring more about their image than about saving patients’ lives – and abusing their power to bully health workers into silence.

The Gauteng provincial government has been given tight deadlines to appoint a permanent CEO at Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital, refurbish the facility, appoint skilled health workers and gazette the facility as a tertiary hospital.

The Gauteng health system lies in tatters while dedicated healthcare workers soldier on under-resourced, underpaid and overworked

Pregnant patients at the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital were left to sleep on the floor in filthy conditions with broken toilets, while hospital CEO Dr Nozuko Mkabayi was present at work on only 182 days over two years.

Dirty, filthy, unsafe, pregnant women sleeping on the floor, a CEO taking 98 days off work without reason and sewage spillages all over the place.

The health ombudsman probed allegations of inhumane treatment of patients at the hospital.

While reflecting on the performance of Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital CEO, Dr Nozuko Mkabayi, Professor Malegapuru Makgoba said that it seemed that the standards of appointing hospital CEOs in Gauteng were rather lax.

Complaints have been laid against Dr Nozuko Mkabayi for being absent from the facility for most of her tenure, amid an investigation launched after reports were received of pregnant women sleeping on the floor.

A doctor who blew the whistle on shocking hospital conditions, a woman who devoted herself to serving the poor and a police diver who died in the line of duty are our joint winners.