No patient at Bara has gone hungry: Gauteng Health

Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko conducted a site visit at the Soweto-based hospital on Tuesday following reports of food shortages at the facility. 

“We can confirm that while the situation at Bara is not ideal, there is no patient that went through a day without receiving their meals. As things stand all meals have been provided to date including special meals,” she said.

“I was made aware over the weekend by the hospital management of the challenges and inconsistency when it comes to the supply of groceries at CHBAH and the contingencies that they had put in place to ensure that patients’ meals continue to be provided. I am well aware that more or less around this time last year, towards the end of the financial year, the department faced similar challenges.”

Nkomo-Ralehoko says suppliers and cold storage issues have worsened the situation.  

“Our analysis of the situation at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, and based on the report that the management of the facility gave, is that there is poor contract management and timely escalation matters where there are challenges. CHBAH does not have enough cold storage capacity to order food supplies in large quantities.

“Some of the suppliers are over-contracted and cannot keep up with the demands of the facility in terms of the orders being made. This relates to the appointment of multiple suppliers instead of contracting one supplier for multiple items, which they end up not being able to deliver on.”

The MEC says the provincial government will have to come up with a solution.

“The department will have to review this matter so that our services are not compromised by the appointment of service providers who do not have the required capacity. We are well on course to make sure that we realign our Finance and Supply Chain component to ensure that issues of supplier payment and lack of delivery of supplies by contracted service providers are dealt with.”

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