After a lengthy legal battle over the awarding of a controversial air ambulance tender, a court battle which saw the Eastern Cape operating without its vital air service for almost two years, the provincial department of health’s life-saving aeromedical helicopter service is back. The service officially resumed late last week.
The provincial health department has run up against a new challenge in providing decent services to Eastern Cape citizens: the prevalence of “ghost workers” in its system.
Lecturers doing administrative work, uninhabitable nursing student accommodation, frequent break-ins at some campuses, an exodus of staff since 2017, and some campuses with no students. These are among the challenges at the Lilitha Nursing College in the Eastern Cape that the provincial legisla.
Lilitha nursing college was established in terms of the provisions of the Education and Training of Nurses and Midwives Act 4 of 2003 - and the college comprises five campuses and 19 sub-campuses spread across the Eastern Cape.