While national reports are rife about Limpopo hospitals that have run out of food, the Louis Trichardt Memorial Hospital has no such problems ... Or so claims the spokesperson for the Provincial Department of Health, Mr Joe Maila.

In the meantime, it has come to light that local businessmen were approached by the hospital last week for food donations. Some even described the situation as a humanitarian crisis.

Mr Luke Enslin, owner of Louis Trichardt Spar, is one businessman that came to the rescue of the patients at the hospital. He confirmed last week that, via Spar, he has committed to providing mealie meal and vegetables to the hospital.

“As we understand it, there can be up to 60 patients hospitalised per day,” said Enslin. “We were shocked when we learned that there was no food to give to the patients,” he added.

Enslin confirmed that he had received an official letter from the hospital, asking for food donations. The Zoutpansberger  and Limpopo Mirror  have also seen copies of another letter asking a local farmer to donate a cow which can be slaughtered to provide patients with meat.

When Maila was approached for comment, however, he was adamant that there was no existing or looming food crisis at the hospital. “We don’t call it a crisis,” said Maila on Monday.

He continued to explain that people must have read about the food shortages that some hospitals in the province have experienced and decided to donate food of their own accord. The reports that Maila referred to appeared in the national news a fortnight ago. Most hospitals in Limpopo had reportedly run out of food because service providers had failed to deliver food since they had not been paid.

The service providers had also raised concerns that they had run out of capital to purchase the food required at the institutions. This followed after the provincial departments of health, public works, treasury, education and roads and transport had been placed under administration after their finances had dried up.

It was only when the existence of the donation letters were confirmed that Maila admitted that a food shortage existed at the hospital. “But suppliers are getting paid and the issue should be resolved soon,” said Maila.

The existence of donation letters, he said, needed to be verified but, to his knowledge, the hospital had never asked for food.