With crises stacking up, Livingstone Tertiary Hospital got yet another new chief executive at the weekend after the acting CEO resigned.
On November 8, the CEO of Livingstone and PE Provincial Hospitals – collectively known as Livingstone Tertiary Hospital – Thulane Madonsela, was placed on special leave.
This came after the department of health agreed to institute an investigation against him and his management team following an illegal strike in November at the facility.
The acting CEO, Fundile Gebremedhin, resigned on Friday.
Gebremedhin was a highly valued information technology specialist in the department of health and was instrumental in setting up a service for children with heart disease to receive MRIs.
He has only been working at Livingstone Hospital for seven months and reasons for his resignation were not forthcoming from the department.
Health spokesperson Lwandile Sicwetsha confirmed that Dr Bukelwa Hans, who was managing PE Provincial Hospital, would be the new acting CEO for the two hospitals.
“Dr Hans will be acting as from [Saturday],” Sicwetsha said last week.
After violent protest action by labour unions at the hospital, Madonsela and his entire management team were placed on special leave by the department’s superintendent-general, Dr Thobile Mbengashe.
Meanwhile, the department of health has not provided answers to dire problems at the hospital, including what the contingency plans are after the only operational cath lab in the province was declared broken beyond repair.
This happened in October. So far the only plan was that a new lab would be up and running in between 18 months and two years.
According to documentation outlining the unions’ grievances, the scope of the investigation into allegations of mismanagement and theft at Livingstone include the disappearance of a state computer and laptops, financial irregularities, housing and the provision of patient food to staff.
Another issue is whether the department will be acting against 97 staff members who were apprehended by security personnel for theft just before the November strike.
Lebo Nare, of Mafoko security, said the staff members were arrested “for various acts of theft” in the last five months (June to November).
There was a total of 97 cases against staff member ranging in seniority from general assistants to nurses, he said.