KZN MEC in row over doctor insult
KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Peggy Nkonyeni has become embroiled in controversy over an insult she made in isiZulu about rural doctors.
Nkonyeni accused rural doctors of being concerned with money not patients while doing a tour of Manguzi Hospital accompanied by hospital staff and community leaders.
She also said the AZT was toxic and that antiretroviral medication had bad side-effects, especially for children, according to witnesses.
The Treatment Action Campaign’s (TAC) KZN branch this week demanded that she apologise for her ‘inflammatory statements’, which they described as ‘a thinly veiled attack on Dr Colin Pfaff’.
Pfaff, the medical manager of Manguzi, was recently charged with misconduct for implementing ‘dual therapy’. This was after he had supplemented the nevirapine-only treatment for pregnant HIV positive women with additional medication, AZT.
In response, KZN health ministry spokesperson Sebe Zwane did not deny Nkonyeni had made the remarks.
However, she said that the MEC’s remarks had been made during a surprise tour of the hospital last week to get first-hand information about service delivery.
‘It was during her tour that matters around the antiretroviral therapy programme were raised. In her advice to the staff and, in particular, in addressing pre-enrolment counselling challenges she indicated the need for counsellors to correctly and fully inform patients about the benefits and side-effects of the treatment programme they enrol for,’ said Sebe.
‘The intention here was to ensure that we prepare patients for possible side-effects and to equip them with information on how to deal with these, if they occur.’
Responding to the remarks the MEC had made about rural doctors, Sebe said: ‘The MEC went further to warn against people who want to seem like ‘good Samaritans’ in the eyes of the media whereas in the implementation of their duties, they are not giving patients full information and options available to them.’
Sebe hit back at those who had complained about the MEC’s remarks: ‘The Department wishes to appreciate the vigilance demonstrated by our civil society partners and health care workers when it comes to sensitivities around the ARV therapy programme. It is however, regrettable when what we see as vigilance is actually perpetrated by cheap political interest and irresponsibility.’
The KZN health department said it would aim to roll out dual therapy programme by 1st April, she added.
Leon Mbangwa, the department’s head of communications, said that his department faced budgetary and capacity constraints.
‘It is not easy. All our hospitals are now antiretroviral treatment sites. We had a budget to treat 88 000 people this financial year, but we are already treating 128 000 people wih ARVs,’ said Mbangwa.
The department is believed to be heading for a massive deficit by the end of the financial year, largely as a result of under-budgeting.
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