Dr Nokuzola Ntshona, deputy manager of the East London Hospital Complex and medical superintendent of the Cecilia Makiwane Hospital, was suspended this week for blowing the whistle in the media on baby deaths at Frere Hospital. Zukile Majova spoke to her.
How difficult is it to be a whistleblower in South Africa’s public sector?
It is very difficult and painful, especially if the people who are trying to draw the attention of the authorities to service delivery problems get suspended and no one appears to be interested in addressing the matters being raised.
My case is even worse; it’s a dicey situation because I was employed on May 14, which means I am on probation for 12 months.
But three-and-a-half months into the job I am suspended. It would be very easy for whoever chairs the disciplinary hearing to reach an adverse finding in my situation.
I think it also is difficult because there are medical doctors who have been here long before me and they have been scared to raise these issues. Babies have been dying at a rate of 200 a month in each of the two hospitals (Cecilia Makiwane and Frere) for the past 14 years and nothing has been done about it.
How do you feel about the way the matter has been handled?
I feel like I am a small superstar, but I am also very angry.
The matter has been so personalised and the problem I sought to address persists. Preventable deaths of babies persist at the hospitals and the issue has become a hot potato. Even when I was on Xolani Gwala’s phone-in programme on SAfm, people sought to discredit me — some implying I am a liar.
People who know my work at the hospital and in Limpopo where I worked before are sending me SMSs telling me not to back down and that they support and respect me for refusing to be intimidated.
I feel I have been victimised and my authority undermined by people who are political appointments in important positions that determine who lives or who dies.
Apart from writing to the president, what other measures did you take to draw the attention of the authorities to the problem? How often did you raise your concerns?
Almost every week since I arrived here. I chair a weekly meeting at Makiwane and often attend meetings at Frere where others and myself have raised our concerns.
I was shocked when Doctor [Gerald] Boon, the chairperson of paediatrics for the past 22 years, said up to 400 babies were dying in the two hospitals every month. He said 10 500 babies in the Eastern Cape do not reach their fifth birthday. Is that not serious?
I have always drawn the attention of hospital chief executive Mr [Luvuyo] Mosana to these problems.
After a lot of frustration and having realised that the minister and her task team had missed some important things in their report, I quietly wrote to the president. I was asking for a meeting. I was actually disappointed that even when he was in the Eastern Cape recently, he did not visit Frere Hospital.
It was not entirely true to say the babies were dying from lack of equipment. They die as a result of staff shortages. Most importantly, there is overwhelming bacterial infection in the hospital and the wards. Klebsiella pneumonia and Pseudomonas aeruginosa are two of four bacteria L infections prevalent in the paediatric wards. There is also nosocomial infection, which is a hospital-acquired infection that kills neonatals.
I have written a comprehensive six-page letter to Mosana outlining the causes of these deaths, how they can be solved and in what time frames. I am on record saying these problems cannot be solved by Mosana and [Eastern Cape Health Minister Nomsa] Jajula, who are both not doctors.
To what extent is it a problem that senior health officials are not medical professionals?
I think the political heads of health at national and provincial level and, in this case, the hospital CEO Mosana, should be doctors and should be registered with the Health Professions Council. I mean, why should Vusi Pikoli be a properly licensed advocate before assuming his duties at the National Prosecuting Authority, while the same is not required of people in charge of health in our country? I think the message must be drilled into our politicians that health is important; it’s a right not a privilege.
Where to from here?
I will stay here until the dispensation of my case. I feel I have to see this through.