Section27, representing the Cancer Alliance, yesterday argued against the Gauteng Department of Health and nine others for failing to utilise the R784 million designated for addressing radiation and surgical backlogs in the province.
The Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg was told that the provision of radiation oncology services is crucial in cancer treatment, making this case extremely urgent.
When patients do not receive radiation treatment within the recommended three-month timeframe, they often experience recurrences of the cancer. This, in turn, requires additional medical assessment, cancer staging, and sometimes further surgery and chemotherapy before they become eligible for radiation treatment again.
Section27 said the delay in integrated radiation oncology treatment results in the tragic loss of more lives among cancer patients. Therefore they urged the department to urgently fulfill its constitutional duty of granting these patients access to cancer treatment.
The department failed to use the allocated R784 million set aside by the Gauteng Treasury last year to address the radiation backlog and other surgical backlogs in Gauteng. Despite being allocated the money specifically for addressing the backlog in radiation oncology and surgery in the province, the department has made no meaningful progress in providing radiation oncology treatment to cancer patients on the backlog list.
Instead, following a protest held by Section27 and the Cancer Alliance and the Treatment Action Campaign in April, after months of no communication or clarity, the department 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 intended for investment in oncology, medical and allied equipment, including construction of a bunker to house some of the machines.
Section27 said, however, given the department’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.
This is 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.
Following the allocation of the funds, Cancer Alliance and Section27 met twice with Gauteng Health officials. At the last meeting in June last year, the department 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 the department to appoint a service provider by August last year.
The applicants said despite their repeated requests for progress with the implementation of the plan, no information was received. It was only months later that Gauteng Health advertised a tender for the outsourcing of radiation oncology services. 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 court was told.