The Crisis of Public Health Care in the Eastern Cape - The Post-Apartheid Challenges of Oversight and Accountability (Paperback)

Much has been heard about the so-called health crisis in the Eastern Cape over the past few years, both from politicians and the media. Since 2000 there has been a steady increase in the number of reports of health care related problems in the Eastern Cape, including overcrowded hospital wards, dilapidation of infrastructure, food shortages, broken-down ambulances and neglected state mortuaries. The questions that this report sets out to address are: what are the various dimensions of the crisis in the provision of health care services in the Eastern Cape between 2000 to 2004? Is this crisis largely the result of the province's apartheid legacy, as politicians have often claimed, or the consequence of mismanaged health care resources? And, importantly, how can this crisis be overcome? These are serious questions that are addressed through an evaluation of the performance of the Eastern Cape department of health against the constitutional and legislative requirements established to govern public service delivery since 1994. This report assesses whether public health care resources have been effectively and accountably utilised since the transition to democracy in South Africa.