Public hospital patients at risk

ONE of the Eastern Cape Health Department's biggest maintenance contractors has been liquidated, leaving 130 permanent workers unemployed and forcing several of its own suppliers to close down, placing patients at public hospitals throughout the province at risk.

Ai-Tech, which is responsible for servicing most of the generators, sterilisation equipment, laundries, kitchens and boilers at the province's public hospitals, blames its demise squarely on the fact it is owed about R40- million by several provincial departments of health.

This includes R8-million which it says has been left unpaid by the Eastern Cape department for more than a year. -