Health-e was given dispensary order forms from Charlotte Maxeke hospital revealing among others that the academic hospital’€™s oncology in-patient ward 594 was unable to dispense half of the non-chemotherapy drugs and items ordered by the ward due to stock outs.

Campaigning for Cancer (C4C) is now threatening legal action against the provincial and national health departments if matters do not improve by the end of this week.

C4C Spokesperson Lauren Pretorius said they have been dealing with several cases involving cancer patients being affected by poor service delivery, highlighting major problems in Gauteng specifically.

The out of stock items at Charlotte Maxeke included basic items such as disinfectants and more complex drugs for TB, nausea, drops to prevent eye bleeds and white blood cell boosters.

Of the 50 drugs and items ordered for ward 594 last week, 24 were out of stock.

The leaked order forms indicate which medications and other items were ordered for the ward and which has been issued.

Several of the drugs had been marked as ‘€œO/S’€ indicating they were out of stock at the hospital’€™s central dispensary.

The items out of stock included magnesium and calcium supplements; mycostatin (treats mild thrush and prevents thrush in chemotherapy patients); intravenous and oral cotrimoxazole (pneumocystis pneumonia treatment); stemetil (prevents vomiting) cloxacillin (skin and superficial infections); Rifafour (first line TB drugs); maxitriol drops (prevents chemotherapy related eye bleeds); D-germ, bioscrub and savlon (all disinfectants); and neupogen (generates specific white blood cells in patients on chemo with low white cell counts).

Chemotherapy patients were also turned away last week after being told their drugs were out of stock at the time. These included Tamoxifen (used in certain kinds of breast cancer), Bleomycin (used for among other Kaposi’€™s Sarcoma treatment) and Cisplatin (used for among other lung cancer treatment).

This week Democratic Alliance spokesperson on health Jack Bloom said cancer patients’€™ lives were at risk because of broken equipment and staff shortages in the province.

In response to a list of questions from Bloom, Gauteng Health MEC Ntome Mekgwe confirmed that patients seeking treatment for head, neck and prostate cancer faced a wait of between four and five months at Charlotte Maxeke.

Mekgwe confirmed that various machinery had been broken at different times impacting on the successful treatment of patients. She also confirmed the ‘€œintermittent shortages of certain chemotherapy drugs and pain medication’€.

The MEC also acknowledged in reply to Bloom that posts had to be created if the province wished to deliver good cancer care, including more than 120 nursing posts at Steve Biko and Chris Hani Baragwanath alone.

Pretorius said the current state of affairs was unacceptable, calling for a full-scale investigation into the reasons for the lack of appropriate treatment.

Mekgwe’€™s spokesperson Simon Zwane said they were aware of the drug stock outs and had ‘€œinteracted with suppliers to ensure that they provide the drugs’€.

He said medicine and surgical suppliers were paid R874-million on April 30 and that a consignment of the requested drugs had been delivered to the hospital with another consignment expected today (SUBS: TUES).

Zwane acknowledged that there were challenges. Asked to repond to Bloom’€™s comment that there was a crisis he responded ‘€œit does not help to exaggerate’€.