Controversial Musina doctor finally gets the boot

The controversial clinical manager of the Messina Hospital, Dr Allick Dube, has been given the sack – officially.

Even though the Limpopo Department of Health and Social Development (DoH) is hesitant to admit to the fact, Dube’s dismissal is rumoured to have followed after the complaints by staff, several humanitarian organisations and patients of the hospital about his alleged misconduct.

Dube had been the clinical manager of Messina Hospital for almost four years. During this time, he also briefly served the hospital as senior clinical chief executive. He was relieved of his duties as manager for a short while, following a strike by hospital staff in May 2013.

The Zoutnet reported on this strike at the time, during which nursing staff told reporters that there were more than 64 complaints against Dube from the community alone. They claimed that Dube had been ill-treating patients by allegedly refusing them adequate care and medicine.

One humanitarian organisation, Médecins Sans Frontièrs (MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders), even compiled a report which they filed with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), which is responsible for registering doctors. MSF also gave a copy of the report to both the national and Limpopo departments of health, as well as to the Zoutnet.

The report was filed against Dube as an official complaint about his conduct as a registered medical practitioner. According to the report, Dube refused to provide anti-retrovirals (ARVs) to rape victims, especially if they were from Zimbabwe. Dube, the MSF said, treated Zimbabwean rape victims and patients as if they were a burden on the health-care system. Such victims came from both the Messina Hospital and the Thuthuzela Care Centre (TCC), which neighbours the Messina Hospital and shared resources with the hospital.

Dube’s alleged refusal may be ironic if a 2009 interview in the KwaZulu-Natal DoH’s newsletter is taken into consideration. Dube told this DoH that he had returned to South Africa because he had “decided to go back to his roots to help in the fight against HIV/Aids.”

Apart from Dube’s treatment of patients, the HPCSA was also provided with evidence that Dube had been convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the United States of America (US), and had been barred from practicing medicine in the US. A copy of the decision, which was made against Dube during October 1993, was made available to the Zoutnet by Mrs Shelley Walker, assistant communication director of the Tennessee Department of Health.

According to the Agreed Order, Dube admitted to “committing medic-aid fraud, falsifying patient records, allowing unlicensed or otherwise inappropriate personnel to examine patients, order diagnostic tests and prescribe medication.” Dube also allowed “others” to issue prescriptions while using his signature stamp.

In terms of the order, Dube’s licence was suspended for two months, and he was placed on probation until 7 November 1997. According to Walker, his US licence for the state of Tennessee expired during 2002, and since then no records of other licences issued to Dube could be found. Dube left the US during 2001 after he had withdrawn his own application for the reinstatement of his medical licence.

Since then, Dube continued to work in South Africa with an HPCSA-issued licence. Following the strike at the Messina Hospital in May last year, Dube was reinstated for a short while after his suspension by the DoH. During his suspension, the DoH launched an investigation but was mute about the outcome and ignored several media enquiries made by the Zoutnet into the report.

At the end of May this year, Ms Adele van der Linde, spokesperson for the Limpopo DoH, told the Zoutnet that Dube had been dismissed, effective as of 19 May 2014, and was no longer in the employ of the DoH. According to Van der Linde, Dube was fired because the HPCSA had revoked his medical licence. The HPCSA found in February this year that Dube had submitted false information upon applying for his medical license.

Van der Linde stated that the DoH’s investigative report was not a public document and was unable to confirm when a new appointment would be made in Dube’s place.

Reports of the HPCSA's planning to file criminal charges against Dube could not be confirmed at the time of going to press. Further action might also be taken against the HPCSA itself, or even the DoH, in terms of accountability as it is a criminal offense to practise medicine without a proper license in South Africa.

News - Date: 06 June 2014

Isabel Venter

Isabel joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in 2009 as a reporter. She holds a BA Degree in Communication Sciences from the University of South Africa. Her beat is mainly crime and court reporting.

Email: [email protected]