Life Esidimeni contract may be extended

A task team comprising members from the department of health, treasury, social development and the Limpopo provincial government has recommended the contract for Life Esidimeni, a subsidiary of Life Healthcare currently managing the Shiluvana Frail Care Centre in Limpopo, be extended by 12 months.

The centre has been marred by allegations of a collapse of services, financial constraints, and shortages of staff and water.

The Citizen reported last week that nurses, patients and members of the community at the centre were gripped by fear of what would happen to them when the contract of Life Esidimeni ended.

This newspaper can also reveal that the company’s contract expires in five weeks’ time.

Those who shared their frustrations said they were scared of a repetition of the 2015 Life Esidimeni scandal in Gauteng, in which 143 patients lost their lives, allegedly due to hunger and poor management.

But yesterday, the department appealed for calm and said all was well at the centre.

“We are putting systems in place to ensure that the provision of services at the centre is in a good space. This is as the Life Esidimeni contract comes to an end on 30 September,” said spokesperson Witness Tiva.

In a bid to keep the centre afloat, Tiva said a task team was established to ensure that a long lasting solution is found.

He said among many other things, the task team had recommended that the contract of Life Esidimeni be extended by a further 12 months.

In-depth investigations revealed that the task team had earlier vowed to extend the contract for five months. This would have cost the department R21.5 million. The five-month extension would be legitimate as it was within 15% of the contract value. But instead, the team opted to extend the contract for 12 months, which would then see the department spending R51.6 million.

Advancing reasons for that, the team claimed the 12-month extension was necessary because the expiry date for Life Esidimeni’s contract was limited and that time for advertising and awarding of the contract would be compromised if done in a hurry.

The facility has received an injection of R71 million this financial year. The money, according to the social development department, would go a long way in bankrolling outsourced functions and for its day-to-day operations.

“The department and the task team are doing all they could to save the lives,” said a resident, who has a mentally impaired patient at the centre, but spoke on condition of anonymity.