KZN Health resolves service provider payment delays after food supply issues at hospitals

The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health says it has resumed payments to service providers following a delay caused by a system transition, an issue that contributed to food supply issues at some healthcare facilities.

Acting Head of Department (HOD) Penny Msimang said in a recent radio interview delays occurred after the National Treasury implemented a change to the Basic Accounting System (BAS), which the department uses to process payments.

“There was a transition from the system that we use to pay service providers called Basic Accounting System (BAS). National Treasury had a transition from Version 5 to Version 6 of BAS. So during that process, we were not able to process the payments of some service providers."

“However, that has been sorted, and as of last week, we are making those payments,” said Msimang.

But the Democratic Alliance (DA) has slammed the department for what it calls a preventable crisis, saying the department had enough time to plan for the transition and should have communicated with service providers to avoid disruptions to essential services.

DA KZN spokesperson on health Dr Imran Keeka said: “This matter was foreseen and raised long before it became a crisis. The Department knew about the transition to BAS Version 6. Treasury communicated about it, and planning should have been done accordingly.”

He said the non-payment of service providers led to hospitals being unable to provide adequate food, including at Northdale and Vryheid hospitals.

“People’s lives depend on hospitals running properly, including food provision. This matter should have been better managed,” said Keeka.

The incident at Northdale comes after a power outage at the hospital last week resulted in hospital staff resorting to cooking food on an open fire outside.

A video of the incident circulated on social media. The department said that disciplinary action would be taken against the staff as cooking outside on an open fire was against regulations.

The Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK) Party has since strongly condemned Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane’s handling of this matter, accusing the department of shifting blame to workers instead of addressing infrastructure failures and the lack of contingency planning.

“The MK Caucus views their actions not as misconduct, but as heroic intervention at a time when the Department’s systems had collapsed,” said MK Caucus Whip Siphiwe Mbatha Moyo.

“We strongly reject the scapegoating of workers while leadership hides behind bureaucratic language.”

The MKP said it was “completely unrealistic and inhumane to expect kitchen staff, in the middle of a blackout crisis, to coordinate sourcing food from other hospitals without clear operational support,” and demanded that disciplinary measures against the staff be withdrawn. It also called for a full forensic investigation into the state of hospital infrastructure and emergency response systems.

Responding to the incident, Msimang confirmed that there had been a power outage in the area, and that although the hospital has three generators, one of them which powered the kitchen, failed during the blackout.

She added that the generator was off for about 10 hours and only affected a section of the hospital.

“The one generator that stopped working was supplying power to the kitchen. As that generator was not working, plans were made to have the meals prepared at a nearby hospital in Richmond, but there was miscommunication between the CEO and the person responsible for the kitchen, who saw that time was running and decided to start an open fire and cook outside.”

“Although they were trying to help, we do not commend this act as the Department of Health because we have procedures to follow in such instances. There were also safety concerns because someone might get burnt and hygiene, as the food may be affected.”

THE MERCURY