Court steps in to save cancer patients

The High Court orders Gauteng Health Department to immediately provide radiation oncology treatment after delays left cancer patients at risk. Judge Dippenaar calls the backlog a public health crisis, affirming the constitutional right to life. Zain Johnson speaks to Cancer Alliance’s Salome Meyer.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Seven two Let's walk the Talk.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Streaming countrywide one on the Prime Media Plus app.

Speaker 3 (00:07):
Good morning to you. I'm Zain Johnson in for Africa Milani.
This morning. We catch up with John Maatham as well
as Borgani Bingua at about twenty to six this morning
as to what will be happening on our breakfast shows
on similar to and on Cape Talk between six o'clock
and nine o'clock. In a turnaround, the court has stepped
in to save cancer patients and we chat this morning

(00:29):
to the Cancer Alliance Salome Mayer, and she's the director
of the Cancer Alliance. Now the Johannesburg High Court has
ordered the Hauteng Department of Health to immediately provide radiation
oncology services to qualifying cancer patients and despite the Department's
pending appeal. The ruling comes after the Cancer Alliance and

(00:51):
Section twenty seven argued that delays in treatment we're causing
irreparable harm, including patients death and worsening of the disease.
We chat this morning to Solomi Mayer who is the
director at Cancel Alliance. Good morning Slomei and welcome to
the show.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Good morning to you, Zaim and to all your listeners
at this early time in the morning.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yeah, everybody's awake early in the morning. And so let
me talk to me about how many patients are currently
affected by the radiation oncology backlog, incounting Zien.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
That is exactly the point of the whole court case
at this stage. You know, when we started, we started
with a backlog list of three thousand patients. And what
we are asking is we want that backlog list to
be updated. And you know, as the previous judge I

(01:46):
actually said, we need to be able to compare apples
with apples. You cannot just give us a list and
say all the patients have been treated or seventy percent
or ninety percent of patients have been treated. And that's
the kind of information that we're getting from Haarteng. And
we say that's not sufficient. And this is now what

(02:07):
court is now confirmed that the Haarteng Health Department will
actually go back to the original backlog list and then
indicate to us which of those patients have already had treatment,
which of those patients will still require treatment, Which of
those patients may already have passed away or possibly their

(02:30):
cancer have progressed and they will never actually benefit from
any treatment, and we know of several several patients that
have not been recalled for any treatment. We also know
of patients whose cancer have actually deteriorated that so much
that they are now you know, their cancer spread. You know,

(02:53):
Datu Monto, one of our patients who've been associated with us,
her cancer has spread to her than to her breast
and to her brain.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
Yeah, that's very sad, you know, and we always talk
about the fact that people, you know, one thing that
people do need is adequate health care and proper health care. So, Ami,
how did section twenty seven of the Cancer Alliance then
contribute to securing the court's urgent ruling.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
We've been trying to get the Department of Health now
to do this now for a long time. So in
March when this was handed down, the judgment, the original
judgment was handed down Judge Phnibinas and already ordered that
the Department of Health need to provide this backlock list

(03:46):
within forty five days and then within sixty days to
order to provide us with a plan of what they
are going to do with those patients. And they did
not comp apply. However, in the first case, they were
allowed to appeal this case and we went back to

(04:10):
court obviously because they used that allowance to appeal and
appeal was allowed. Now what has not happened subsequently is
that they have not filed for the appeal. This means
that they can go to Bloemfontein to fight this case.

(04:31):
And based on that we had been said we'd given
them the city days or their forty five days or
their sixty days, and given that that they did not
comply with the court order, we then said, well, we
will revert back to court because that is the only
way that we can secure that patients do receive the

(04:57):
treatment that they are in title to under the Constitution.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
Judge Fiona Dubina described the situation as a public health
and societal crisis, emphasizing that the state cannot delay its
constitutional obligations. And chatting this morning to Solomi Maya, who
is the ce director actually of the Cancer Alliance, and
we're talking about the fact that the Johannesburg High Court

(05:23):
has ordered the Howding Department of Health to immediately provide
radiation oncology services to qualifying cancer patients. Solemi. This was
the response yesterday that the Hauteng Department of Health According
to their spokesperson, Metality Italian Medeva said about this court ruling.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
The Department has acknowledged the judgment delivered by the Houting
High Court regarding the provision of variation oncology services to
cancer pationis. We are currently in the process of carefully
looking into their the ruling to fully appreciate its contents
and implications. Once this review has been concluded, the Department

(06:08):
will determine and communicate the appropriate cause of action. We
of course remain committed to ensuring access to quality health
care services and will continue to engage all relevant as
they called us, in addressing matters affecting patient care.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
Sometimes I feel if I have ten rand for everybody
saying relevant strike holders, I'll probably be a millionaire. What
is the Cancer Alliance response to the Hut Department of
Health announcement that it will first review the High Court
ruling before actually determining what its next step is. It
should actually be clear you should start treating patients, isn't it?

Speaker 1 (06:51):
That is quite correct that I've been claiming that they
are treating the patients on the waiting list, but they
are silent about the backlock because they say there is
no such a backlock list. Just until the other day
they were stall saying there is no such a list
and we never handed a list to them. In fact,

(07:12):
we are already in twenty and twenty two. And this
is what really makes me want to cry that if
you think back that in twenty and twenty two we
handed them the backlocklist the first time they circulated the
backlocklist for us to work with in a task team.

(07:34):
So yes, they're carefully going to you know, review the
judgment and hopefully and we need to actually understand that
even with this case, they can go back and appeal
the judgment. So yes, they do have that opportunity to

(07:54):
appeal it. But we want to implore on the houting
How department, please don't waste further money on court cases
and on legal fees, because by this time this must
be costing you a fortune. Rather take the money and
spend it on health care services, spend it on broken machines.

(08:20):
Just as a matter of interest, the pet scanner in
Charlotte mcgreeky, the very same hospital that we're talking about.
That pet scanner has been out of service since March
and according to our information, is only going to be
available at the end of September. That means that many

(08:44):
patients cannot get further diagnostics and therefore have to sit
and wait patiently to year did my cancer spread? Do
I have cancer? Will I get treatment? Won't I get treatment?
So that is what is happening. But yet they're spending
their money on court cases.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
Chatting this morning to Solomi Mayer, who is the director
at Cancer Alliance about the Johannesburg court, it's rule at
the Houtank Department of Health to immediately provide radiation oncology
services to qualifying patients. If you're a cancer patient or
some of your family members are cancer patients and are

(09:27):
affected by this in the public health services, give me
a call zero one one eight eight three seven two.
And in Cape Town seven two seven two one seven two.
That's WhatsApp line for Johannesburg. In Cape Town you can
chat to us on O two one four four six
oh five six seven And the WhatsApp line for Cape
Town is O seven to five six seven one five

(09:48):
six seven. Solomi, what does this ruling UH send actually
this message about this ruling, well, does it send out
about people ord people's access to healthcare and constitutional rights
in South Africa because you know, medical aid has become
extremely expensive for a number of people and the majority

(10:10):
of people within you know, within the country rely on
public health services.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
It isn't indeed a very important ruling. You know, for
many years we've been i want to say suffering under
the Supermany case, you know, we're at that stage. It
was said, and that's in the early two thousands that
the state first have to have the appropriate funding for
it in this it's called progressive realization for it to

(10:40):
provide these services and therefore, you know, the and that
was the kind of like I want to say, blanket
under which the departments of health functioned, whereas now the
Constitution Court basically says, this is something that government has

(11:01):
to do. You do have the money, and if we
actually go back in terms of all the corruption that's
been having, state cannot actually say sorry, we don't have funding.
But what we do actually need to do then is
is that our citizens need to be informed about what
their rights are and what is it that they can

(11:24):
actually do. Where can they go and knock on the door.
So organizations such as Section twenty seven is one of
the organizations that can actually assist them, and of course
then the specific organizations like the Cancer Reliance or Treatment
Action Campaign or whichever organization if it's diabetes, so that

(11:48):
you actually then start saying, wait a bit, let's come together,
because the single voice is it's always difficult for people
to do that. But when you start talking about more
than one and that and I would say that radio
stations should play a role and assist us in terms

(12:09):
of what are the real rights and how do people
go about it? These many ways that we can start
actually focusing on the rights of people and helping people
to stand up and raise their voices in terms of
healthy in South Africa.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
Sali Maya chatting to us this morning, director at Cancer Alliance,
thank you so much for your time this morning talking
about the Johannesburg High Court that has ordered the Heuting
Department of Health to immediately provide radiation oncology services to
qualifying cancer patients. And we're talking about the cancer patients
that are currently being treated, but also about the backlog

(12:50):
and the ruling incomes after Cancer Alliance, the organization that
Salomi Maya represents, as well as Section twenty seven, I'll
get that del treatment were causing irreparable harm, including patient
deaths and worsening diseases. If you found yourself at the
door of a health department or a public hospital, and

(13:11):
you found yourself in a situation whereby you were not
able to gain access to oncology services, we'd love to
hear from you. Zero one, one eight eight three oh
seven two. The Cape town line is the O two
one four four six O five six seven