“Poor public health management led to the 178K toddler deaths” DA MP Clarke
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The Democratic Alliance ways the poor management in the public health by the Department of Health has led to the death of almost 180 000 children aged 0 to 5 years old in the last decade.
A statement issued by the opposition party, DA MP and shadow health minister Michele Clarke said that about 19 707 of those reported deaths were due to pneumonia and diarrhoea, while 12 582 came from moderate and severe acute malnutrition.
Responding to the question by Clarke, Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla said that 12 224 children’s deaths between 2013 to 2018 were due to unnatural causes.
“Given that a study conducted in neonatal wards in South African district and regional hospitals found that 33% of patients were infected with pneumonia in hospital, it would be logical to assume that at least 3 000 of the 10 216 pneumonia-related deaths recorded were from hospital associated infections. And the horrendous state of many of the health facilities the DA conducts oversights at, certainly bears out the high risk of infection.”
“The ANC government’s fever dream of the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill will not make a dent in addressing these issues.”
“This is because the ANC sees the myriad of problems plaguing the public health sector as an issue of funding, when in fact the problem lies with management – management of funding, management of resources, management of staff, management of projects and processes, and management of consequences” said Clarke.
