SAFTU urges Treasury to address Gauteng Health’s radiation funding

The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) says the Gauteng Health Department’s lack of funding to invest in radiation needs to be taken to the National Treasury.

This comes as reports reveal that the provincial health department is failing to invest enough money and resources in radiation and as a result hospitals end up having to outsource radiation.

Thousands of cancer patients are still waiting for radiation treatment at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital and Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Tshwane. This includes 1 440 prostate cancer patients and 848 others suffering from various cancers at Charlotte Maxeke.

SAFTU spokesperson Trevor Shaku says, “We are worried as the South African Federation of Trade Unions because this amounts to firstly the bundling of the hospitals by the Gauteng Department of Health. But secondly, it also amounts to the shared problem out of the issues of physical asperity which have for quite some time been affecting the public service institutions such as hospitals. So, this is quite problematic,” says Shaku.