Staff dig deep to feed starving patients
2012-01-29 10:00
Disgruntled food suppliers in Limpopo have left hospital kitchens high and dry.
What used to be packed-to-capacity storerooms for fresh fruit and vegetables, cereals and bread, are now dry and empty.
Only the label on the stainless steel storeroom doors tells you what items used to be stocked inside.
Forty-four hospitals in the province are running out of fresh produce and bread, but some fridges in hospitals are still stocked with meat, milk and yoghurt.
For nearly two months now, staff in some hospitals have had to dig deep into their own pockets to buy food for patients because suppliers are refusing to deliver food.
In Seshego and Zebediela hospitals, staff came together and contributed their last money to buy basic food items – that were not available at the facilities – for patients.
“We had no choice but to contribute towards fruits and vegetables because patients need to eat a balanced diet.
“We have been doing this since December and it looks like we are going to continue with it for sometime,” said a senior official at Seshego Hospital, outside Polokwane.
Seshego Hospital, located a few kilometres from the ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema’s home, has lacked cooking oil, cereals and fresh fruits and vegetables for weeks. It is also on its last pack of sugar and that should run out this week.
While this is common, other hospitals in rural areas are even worse off.
Early this month patients at Jane Furse hospital had to be fed dry rice and viennas because there was no other food.
The hospital sent a request to the provincial health department last month to buy the food it needs directly from shops.
The request was approved two weeks ago, but the hospital still doesn’t have toilet paper, forcing staff and patients to bring their own.
Contacted for comment this week, some of the concerned suppliers refused to give reasons for their boycott and referred questions to the department.
However, Efsem Trading, which supplies fruits and vegetables to hospitals across the province, said it stopped supplying goods because of non-payment.
“The department owes me close to R3 million. The last payment I received was in September and I continued delivering until December when my savings ran dry,” said Thelma Masete owner of Efsem Trading.
“I feel sorry for the patients but there is nothing I can do. I have used all my savings buying fruits and vegetables to supply hospitals and also pay salaries for staff.”
The company retrenched eight drivers this month due to loss of revenue.
Provincial health department spokesperson Joe Maila said: “The department was in the process of paying suppliers. Some have already been paid and have resumed providing services.”
Health and four other departments were placed under administration by Cabinet in December last year after it was discovered that provinces had wasted R2.7 billion on unauthorised expenditure.
Since then some suppliers have stopped delivering food to hospitals, sparking a debate that they were deliberately sabotaging the intervention by the national government.
Cosatu, which campaigned against corruption last year, claimed that the suppliers were colluding with the disgruntled provincial political leadership to sabotage the takeover by the national government.
The labour federation’s provincial secretary Dan Sebabi called on government to blacklist suppliers who refuse to supply the much-needed food to hospitals.
“They (suppliers) are trying to sabotage the efforts of the national government to try to clean this province.
“They are being encouraged by leaders and politicians who are affected by the administration takeover not to supply hospitals,” Sebabi said.
But Masete and other suppliers including Shao Trading and Nandi’s Food Supplies, which supply bread and cooking oil respectively, refuted those claims.
Cosatu’s claims of sabotage were also confirmed last week by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, who said an investigation had been launched in this regard.
A source familiar with the hospital tenders in the province alleged that some suppliers colluded with officials and under-priced their goods to win the contracts.
“Now they are sitting with the dilemma of operating at a loss. They are forced to supply goods at 25% or 50% below cost,” the source said.
Nandi’s Food Suppliers is one of the companies that under-priced their goods when bidding for tenders to supply cooking oil to hospitals across Limpopo for three years (between June 2010 and May 2013).
It is also one of the service providers that refuses to supply hospitals.
The agreement was that it would supply 750ml of cooking oil at a cost of R7.92 for the duration of the contract.
Their costing is and was well below the cost in 2010 and also presently as the same measurement of cooking oil sells for R15 today.
Nandi's project manager Jabu Mahlathi refused to provide reasons for why he had suspended his services, referring queries to the department.
On the issue of under-pricing he said: “My understanding was that the prices of cooking oil would be reviewed annually until the contract expires. But that has never happened.”
- City Press