A medical supply company is refusing to fix a Leratong hospital CAT scanner which has been broken for six weeks because it is owned money by the health department, the DA claimed on Sunday.
This was putting patients' lives at risk, said Democratic Alliance Gauteng health spokesman Jack Bloom.
He said emergency patients at Leratong had to wait hours to be taken to another hospital for scans.
"Supply company TecMed refuses to replace the tube in the CAT scanner as the Gauteng Health Department owes them money," said Bloom.
Department spokesman Simon Zwane said Leratong hospital management was interacting with TecMed to get the machine fixed.
He said there had been a dispute with TecMed about how much it had been paid for its services and how much it was still owed by the department.
"Management is working on getting the machine fixed."
Regarding an accusation by Bloom that operations at Helen Joseph hospital had to be cancelled on Thursday when it ran out of a special paper used when sterilising surgical instruments, Zwane said the hospital received more paper on Friday.
"Another batch of the paper will be delivered this coming week," he said.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2012/10/21/cat-scanner-not-fixed-due-to-unpaid-bills-da
