A damning report on the lack of progress made in improving the Eastern Cape’s mental health programme has revealed that apart from advertising for a director post and succeeding in preventing stockouts, very little progress has been made in improving the public sector’s mental health services in the past three years.
The report was also submitted to the Health Committee of the Eastern Cape Legislature.
In August 2018, after an investigation into conditions at the Tower Psychiatric Hospital in Fort Beaufort, South Africa’s Health Ombudsman Professor Malegapuru William Makgoba advised that the national health minister should appoint an administrator for mental health services in the Eastern Cape Department of Health.