Gauteng defends its plans for cancer patients

The Gauteng health department says it has taken all possible steps to deal with the backlog of cancer patients awaiting radiation therapy and it accuses activists of trying to use the courts to meddle in its affairs.

The Cancer Alliance, which represents 30 cancer organisations, has taken legal action against the department to try to speed up the provision of radiation therapy to patients in Gauteng.

The Cancer Alliance’s application centres on the department’s alleged failure to spend R784m set aside in the 2023/24 budget to tackle the province’s radiation oncology and surgical backlog. It says about 3,000 cancer patients are on the list waiting for radiation therapy, which is used to help prevent cancers recurring after tumours have been surgically removed.

The matter, which the department is opposing, is due to be heard in the high court in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

Acting head of the department Arnold Malotana said in court papers the Cancer Alliance’s court application was factually wrong and sought “to run the administration of the department through the court”.

“The real relief which the applicant seeks is to interfere and take control of the department and ultimately run the department from outside.”

Contrary to statements in the Cancer Alliance’s court papers, R784m had been set aside for tackling the oncology and surgical backlog over the threeyear medium-term expenditure framework, not the 2023/24 fiscal year, Malotana said.

Moreover, the Cancer Alliance’s claim that R250m was to be paid to a single service provider for outsourcing radiation oncology services was wrong, he said, as only one of three intended contracts had been awarded.

Varian Medical Systems had been awarded a R17.48m contract for radiation oncology planning services, but no awards had yet been made for the provision of specialist oncology or technical services, he said. A total of R534m had been set aside for bunkers and radiation oncology equipment.

Planning services are used to design a personalised radiation therapy plan for patients before they begin treatment. It usually requires a CT scan to map the area of the body that needs treatment and can involve making devices such as a face mask.

The R17.48m value of the contract was not guaranteed as it would be billed per plan, Andreas Roedder, head of media for Siemens Healthineers and Varian for Africa and the Middle East, said. “Although the contract is active, no services have yet been billed for,” he said. Varian is a subsidiary of Siemens Healthineers, which was spun off from the German healthcare company Siemens in 2017.

Malotana disputed the evidence presented in affidavits submitted by Cancer Alliance director Salomé Meyer and several patients describing how their cancers had recurred or progressed due to delays in receiving radiation therapy.

The Cancer Alliance has asked the court to interdict the department from paying the R250m portion of the budget allocation, pending a review of its decision not to provide integrated radiation oncology treatment.

It has challenged the department’s decision to award only the tender for planning services, saying it should have been awarded at the same time as the contracts for specialist oncology and technical services. It has also asked the court to declare the department’s failure to devise and implement a plan for the provision of radiation oncology services unconstitutional.