DA WC to follow up on progress being made on surgical backlogs

Dear Editor

The DA in the Western Cape will be following up on the progress being made on eradicating the surgical backlog created by the pandemic. This follows the provincial Department of Health and Wellness’ decision earlier this year to re-escalate hospital services.

Since the advent of Covid-19, all hospitals had to reprioritise their services to accommodate Covid-19 patients. It was a step that was extremely necessary to ensure that lives were saved without having facilities overwhelmed by the various waves of infections during the pandemic.

However, the direct consequence of de-escalating non-critical medical services, particularly surgeries that were not urgent, resulted in a backlog in the number of operations needing to take place. This was not only the case in the Western Cape but at hospitals across South Africa.

The province used a proxy marker of surgeries lasting longer than 30 minutes to determine its level of operations. For example, in 2019, the total amount stood at 105 882 operations taking longer than half an hour. In 2020, this number decreased by 19% and dropped even further to 22% last year.

MPP Wendy Kaizer-Philander says: “With the last of the Covid-19 regulations having been withdrawn, it is important that all of our efforts are now focussed on recovery. The decision to re-escalate hospital services was critical towards our post-Covid recovery efforts, because it allowed our healthcare sector to be well-positioned to clear the surgical backlog.

R20 million has already been reallocated towards eradicating the backlog and it is important for the public to know what progress has been to this end. In the Western Cape, we know that our healthcare system is built on strong foundations to deliver quality services to residents.”

Regards

Wendy Kaizer-Philander, MPP
DA Western Cape Spokesperson on Health