SECTION27 and Cancer Alliance, welcome the judgment handed down today by the Johannesburg High Court in the matter of Cancer Alliance v MEC for Health, Gauteng and 10 others, declaring the failure of the Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH) to provide lifesaving radiation oncology services to patients on the backlog list unlawful and unconstitutional. The matter relates to the failure by the GDoH to provide radiation oncology services to 3000 patients who have been awaiting these services for over three years.
This is despite a special allocation of R784 million ring-fenced by the Gauteng Treasury in March 2023 to urgently address the backlog. This court judgment follows years of attempts by Cancer Alliance and partners to negotiate and engage with the GDoH to make urgent plans to ensure the availability of these services.
Reflective of the court’s displeasure at the conduct of the GDoH in this matter, Acting Judge S van Nieuwenhuizen, remarked as follows in the judgment: “The provincial health respondents have done nothing meaningful since the money was allocated in March 2023 to actually provide radiation oncology treatment to the cancer patients. On the other hand, the health and general well-being of the cancer patients significantly deteriorated. There is a clear, imminent and ongoing irreparable harm that cancer patients who are on the backlog list are suffering.”
In addition to declaring the GDoH’s inaction unlawful and unconstitutional, the court has directed the GDoH to take all steps necessary to provide radiation oncology services to backlog list patients who are awaiting treatment.
The court has also directed the GDoH to update the backlog list within 45 days of the order and to file an updated report detailing its progress in providing radiation oncology services to cancer patients on the backlog list and a progress report on its long-term plan to provide radiation oncology services to cancer patients in the province, within three months of the date of the order.
SECTION27 and Cancer Alliance continue to analyse the judgment and will provide a fuller analysis. We celebrate with the thousands of cancer patients and their families, whose lives will forever be changed by this groundbreaking judgment.
SECTION27 I Joburg