Court restores order in Khayelitsha health services

Judge Siraj Desai found that the Western Cape Provincial government as well as the Ministers of Health and Public Works and Administration acted unconstitutionally by violating the rights of patients.

The court upheld the evidence from the Treatment Action Campaign, doctors and nurses who work in Khayelitsha that service provision had been affected because of the dismissals.

Desai found that the dismissals in Khayelitsha disrupted the delivery of health services and that this constituted a violation of the constitutional right to access to health care services.

 The court also ordered the respondents to return to court on the 20th of August 2007 to show why they should not be ordered to restore the reasonable functioning of health services in Khayelitsha.

 Aids Law Project attorney Fatima Hassan described the court ruling as an important victory for the people of Khayelitsha.

‘€œThis is because the Court has found that the Respondents acted unconstitutionally and unlawfully by acting without a contingency plan ‘€“ in other words, they dismissed workers without a contingency plan leading to a disruption of health services in Khayelitsha,’€ explained Hassan.

 The TAC said in a statement that the only reasonable way for government to restore services and implement the court order was to reinstate the dismissed workers. ‘€œTAC appeals to government to do this immediately,’€ the activists said.
The TAC will accompany the dismissed workers to the health facility in the morning and will also offer to volunteer in the facility.

The Western Cape Health Department confirmed earlier this month that 31 health workers had been dismissed at Site B, one at Nolungile and 10 at Michael Mapongwana. This was out of a total of 80 dismissals in the province.

Health department spokesperson Faiza Steyn said at the time the department was convinced that all those who had been fired had specifically compromised the delivery of health services and acted unlawfully.

Steyn also said at the time the decision (to fire the workers) was regarded as final.

Yesterday, Western Cape Department of Health spokesperson Miranda Anthony said they had noted the judgement.

‘€œThe Department is currently evaluating the implications of the judgement and will only comment further once this evaluation has been completed,’€ she said.

National health department spokesperson Sibani Mngagi said they were studying the ruling and ‘€œwill respond accordingly to the legal implications of this ruling’€.

He said interim efforts were being made to ensure that ‘€œhealth services that were disrupted by an illegal industrial action are provided to the community of Khayelitsha in line with the ruling of the court’€.

‘€œGovernment has put at the negotiation table a settlement offer which includes a clear proposal on the return to work process relating to dismissed health workers.

‘€œUnfortunately, this process which is crucial to the normalization of essential health service delivery in the country is being delayed by labour organizations that have been unable to sign the agreement,’€ said Mngadi.

 

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