https://www.polity.org.za
Deepening Democracy through Access to Information
Home / Statements RSS ← Back
Close

Email this article

separate emails by commas, maximum limit of 4 addresses

Sponsored by

Close

Article Enquiry

DA: Jack Bloom says test backlogs must be cleared after lab strike

Close

Embed Video

DA: Jack Bloom says test backlogs must be cleared after lab strike

DA: Jack Bloom says test backlogs must be cleared after lab strike

2nd August 2017

ARTICLE ENQUIRY      SAVE THIS ARTICLE      EMAIL THIS ARTICLE

Font size: -+

/ MEDIA STATEMENT / The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

I welcome the announcement by NEHAWU suspending the strike by more than 5000 workers at the National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS).

This is after agreement was reached on a 7.3% wage hike and the phasing out of the outsourcing of workers.

Advertisement

The major challenge now is to cut the huge backlog of medical tests that has built up since the strike started on Wednesday last week.

Many thousands of patients at Gauteng hospitals and clinics will have to be contacted to have tests that were cancelled because of the strike.

Advertisement

The Gauteng Health Department should pay up what it is owing for the tests, otherwise the NHLS will run out of money to pay salaries in November this year. According to Acting NHLS CEO Shabir Madhi, the Department owes more than R2 billion dating back many years, and has only paid two-thirds of their monthly payment of R154 million since 1 April this year.

Continuing underpayment by the Department will result in a further debt of R600 million in this financial year.

Management problems at the NHLS also need to be fixed speedily to avoid another crisis that will hurt patients.

 

Issued by DA

EMAIL THIS ARTICLE      SAVE THIS ARTICLE ARTICLE ENQUIRY

To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here

Comment Guidelines

 

About

Polity.org.za is a product of Creamer Media.
www.creamermedia.co.za

Other Creamer Media Products include:
Engineering News
Mining Weekly
Research Channel Africa

Read more

Subscriptions

We offer a variety of subscriptions to our Magazine, Website, PDF Reports and our photo library.

Subscriptions are available via the Creamer Media Store.

View store

Advertise

Advertising on Polity.org.za is an effective way to build and consolidate a company's profile among clients and prospective clients. Email advertising@creamermedia.co.za

View options

Email Registration Success

Thank you, you have successfully subscribed to one or more of Creamer Media’s email newsletters. You should start receiving the email newsletters in due course.

Our email newsletters may land in your junk or spam folder. To prevent this, kindly add newsletters@creamermedia.co.za to your address book or safe sender list. If you experience any issues with the receipt of our email newsletters, please email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za