16 July 2024, Johannesburg – Cancer Alliance, represented by SECTION27, has filed an application against the MEC for Health in Gauteng, the Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH) and nine others. The application is in response to the GDoH’s failure to utilise the allocated R784 million set aside by the Gauteng Treasury in 2023 to address the radiation backlog and other surgical backlogs in Gauteng. The court application will be heard on Tuesday, 23 July 2024 at the Johannesburg High Court.
Despite being allocated R784 million in 2023, specifically for addressing the backlog in radiation oncology and surgery in the province, GDoH has made no meaningful progress in providing radiation oncology treatment to cancer patients on the backlog list. Instead, following a protest held by SECTION27, Cancer Alliance and the Treatment Action Campaign, on 30 April 2024, after months of no communication or clarity, GDoH announced through a media statement that they have apportioned R250 million to procure planning services for the outsourcing of radiation and oncology services for a period of one year.
This decision leaves a remaining R534 million, which is purportedly intended for investment in oncology, medical and allied equipment, including construction of a bunker to house some of the machines. However, given GDoH’s inaction in the provision of urgent radiation oncology services to the 3000 patients on the backlog list, Cancer Alliance has been forced to bring an application to interdict the paying, disbursing and otherwise dealing with the R250 million and to ensure that cancer patients on the backlog list urgently receive the radiation and oncology services that they are constitutionally entitled to and for which Gauteng Treasury already made financial provision. The interdict will be in place pending a review of the decision not to provide integrated radiation oncology treatment.
This case has sadly been plagued by delays since the allocation of funds to GDoH. Following the allocation of the funds, Cancer Alliance and SECTION27 met twice with Gauteng Health officials. At the last meeting on 2 June 2023, GDoH committed to a plan to use the allocated funding to address the backlog in providing radiation oncology services. A key decision by Gauteng Health was that it would outsource the provision of radiation oncology services. The agreed-upon plan was for GDoH to appoint a service provider by early August 2023. However, shortly after our June 2023 meeting, GDoH abruptly ceased all communication with Cancer Alliance and SECTION27.
Despite our repeated requests for progress with the implementation of the plan, no information was received. It was only months later, in October 2023, that Gauteng Health advertised a tender for the outsourcing of radiation oncology services, with a closing date of 3 November 2023. It awarded only the planning portion of the services required, and not the provision of integrated services.
Radiation oncology services are a critical component in the treatment of cancer and so this case could not be more urgent. If patients do not receive radiation treatment within the recommended time frame of three months, they often suffer recurrences which necessitate further medical assessment, cancer staging and sometimes further surgery and chemotherapy before they qualify for radiation treatment again. Civil society organisations have been working on the frontlines of the radiation oncology crisis in Gauteng for years and have witnessed first-hand the heart-breaking consequences of the shortage in supply of radiation oncology services.
The longer integrated radiation oncology treatment is delayed, the more lives are tragically lost among cancer patients. SECTION27, Cancer Alliance and the Treatment Action Campaign call upon the GDoH to fulfil its constitutional obligation to provide these patients with access to cancer treatment.
For Media enquiries contact:
SECTION27: Pearl Nicodemus | nicodemus@section27.org.za | 082 298 2636
Cancer Alliance: Salome Meyer | salomefaan@gmail.com | 079 483 3175
TAC: Ngqabutho Mpofu | ngqabutho.mpofu@tac.org.za | 072 225 9675
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