Health department had no professional criteria for choosing NGOs involved in 118 deaths
The Gauteng health department did not have clear and professional criteria to select non-governmental organisations (NGO) to house mentally ill patients, but handed out contracts on the basis of "goodwill", the Health Ombudsman has said. In his testimony at the Life Esidimeni arbitration tribunal, Prof Malegapuru William Makgoba said there was no rational reason for awarding the contracts for state patients to the unlicensed NGOs. The decision to terminate the contract with long-time private healthcare provider, Life Healthcare, was announced in October 2015. The department then proceeded to move more than 1‚300 patients from Life Esidimeni psychiatric homes to 27 NGOs, after which 108 died. Another 10 died when they were moved from Cullinan Care and Rehabilitation Centre‚ where they had lived for years‚ and placed with unlicensed NGOs to make space for Life Esidimeni patients. More than 90% of the 118 deaths occurred at just five NGOs. On Tuesday, the health Ombudsman, who is the f...
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