Civil society organisations have initiated court action to force the Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH) to spend budgeted money to save cancer patients in the province.
In response to the departments failure to use R784 million set aside by the Gauteng Treasury to address the radiation backlog and other surgical backlogs in the province, the Cancer Alliance, represented by Section 17, and Treatment Action Campaign have filed an application at the Johannesburg High Court against the Health and Wellness MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, GDoH, and nine others.
Radiation oncology services are a critical component in the treatment of cancer, and so this case could not be more urgent, the organisations said in a statement on Tuesday.
If patients do not receive radiation treatment within the recommended time frame of three months, they often suffer recurrences that necessitate further medical assessment, cancer staging, and sometimes further surgery and chemotherapy before they qualify for radiation treatment again.
No meaningful progressThe organisations allege that despite the allocated money, the department has made no meaningful progress to provide oncology treatment to cancer patients on the backlog list.
