Class action over deaths of 94 psychiatric patients
Former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu faces a class action lawsuit by the families of 94 psychiatric patients who died in appalling conditions in the care of unlicensed NGOs, says a Business Day report. Health Ombudsman Malegapuru Makgoba’s report into the scandal found that Mahlangu’s cost-cutting exercise to move the patients from Life Esidimeni had been expensive and deadly.
Only one patient died from mental illness-related causes, while the others died of dehydration, starvation, diarrhoea and epilepsy. Opposition parties called for Mahlangu and Premier David Makhura to be charged for the patients’ ‘massacre’, because it had been as a result of ‘their incompetence’. Makgoba has recommended legal action in a report hailed as unprecedented in naming and shaming officials, notes Business Day.
Mahlangu resigned on Tuesday night before the report was made public yesterday. She will be replaced by the former Deputy Minister of Health Gwen Ramokgopa. Between 23 March 2016 and 19 December 2016, 2,000 psychiatric patients were moved from Esidimeni to 27 NGOs and hospitals, many of them without their families’ knowledge. A total of 94 patients died in the care of 16 of the 27 NGOs. The report said the 27 NGOs did not have the necessary licences to offer adequate, specialised care for the patients they took in. Their staff, the report stated, were also unqualified. Makgoba has ordered that the remaining psychiatric patients be transferred back to public healthcare facilities.
Full Business Day report (subscription needed)
The head of the Gauteng Health Department and other senior officials identified in the Ombudsman’s report will face disciplinary action, Makhura said. ‘I have instructed the DG in the office of the Premier to urgently institute appropriate action to deal with the recommendations from the ombudsman,’ Makhura said, according to a BusinessLIVE report. The Premier said he would urgently implement all recommendations made by the ombudsman. In the meantime, all patients placed at NGOs would be transferred back to public healthcare facilities and state-owned institutions so that their specialised needs were catered for. This would happen in the next seven days and be concluded in 45 days. Makgoba’s found that the Gauteng Health Department was negligent when it moved 1 900 patients from Life Healthcare facilities to 27 unlicensed facilities. He said the number of fatalities was provisional as bodies remained unidentified in morgues and some families were still coming forward with the names of dead people. His report is titled 94 silent deaths and still counting.
Mahlangu apologised for the tragedy yesterday. A report in The Mercury says that Independent Media understands that Mahlangu believed she had a case to challenge the findings against her because she was of the view that Makgoba had completely ignored her representations to him. However, she opted not to seek a review of the findings as she felt it would have been insensitive to do so because of the loss of human life. Mahlangu said she would not challenge the recommendations of Makgoba’s report, but noted it was she who had initiated the report, after realising that ‘one death too many of the patients had occurred at the NGOs'. She added: ‘These deaths occurred under my leadership as the MEC responsible for health in the province and I take political accountability.’
Full report in The Mercury (subscription needed)
Section27’s Mark Heywood described the situation as ‘far worse than Marikana’. A Beeld report points out that it was not only the transfer of the patients that was reckless, chaotic and unduly hasty, but also the scandalous conduct that followed. Makgoba found that 77 had already died by the time Mahlangu told the Gauteng Legislature the death toll was 37. He asked departmental head Dr Ephraim Selebano on 23 November how many patients had died and he answered 37, while his own director, Dr Makgabo Manamela, had a tally of 48.
Full Beeld report (subscription needed)
The ANC Youth League in Gauteng says it will lay murder charges against Mahlangu. It says she must be held criminally liable of the deaths of the 94 patients, notes an SABC News report. The league is also calling on the ANC to institute disciplinary action against Mahlangu, and have threatened to secure the resignation of Gauteng Premier David Makhura.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
