Former owner of defunct Sunshine Hospital denies touting for road accident victims to keep it afloat

The former owner of the now-defunct Sunshine Hospital in Johannesburg’s East Rand has dismissed suggestions from MPs that it touted for road accident victims to keep its facility afloat.

Kenneth Ford told Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) that the 200-bed hospital catered for all patients who could pay their own medical bills, and that it derived no additional benefit from the Road Accident Fund (RAF) by treating patients transferred from state facilities. 

During an inquiry into maladministration at the fund, opposition parties on Tuesday questioned the average spend per patient treated at the hospital, which was forced to close down over the three hundred million rand owed to it by the RAF.

READ MORE:

• Parliament hears how Benoni hospital shut down due to R300m it's owed by RAF

• Issuing a subpoena to force witnesses to testify before SCOPA an option of last resort - Zibi

• RAF Inquiry: SCOPA agrees to allow witness to conceal their identity

• Suspended RAF official lifts lid on culture of fear under former CEO Letsoalo

• RAF 'vacillating between hope and a total cancerous and fetid situation' - Polela

Ford said that the Sunshine Hospital accepted transferred patients who had been in car accidents from over 130 state facilities upon request.

"I can tell you that I didn’t pay anybody. If I did, I would be on the road all day with a sack of money."

He was questioned by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)’s Veronica Mente as to whether his hospital had benefited from the incapacity of state facilities.

"If the state had provided the money and the structures for those hospitals, they would not have needed to send those patients anywhere. I agree with you one hundred percent."

An emotional Ford said the hospital could not be saved due to the negative publicity it had received from the RAF, which alleged corrupt practices against the facility, which have never been proven.

"Road Accident Fund should buy it, manage it, and just think how much money they will save."

The MK Party’s Thalente Kubheka has asked Ford to provide the committee with a detailed log of how many foreign nationals, both legal and not, were treated at the hospital at the expense of the RAF.

The inquiry continues on Wednesday.

ALSO READ:

• Parly inquiry questions contradictory evidence about RAF claims without using lawyer

• Personal security arranged for ex-RAF CEO Letsoalo despite no threats against him, SCOPA told

• Road Accident Fund accused of evading payments and attachments

• Road Accident Fund officials accused of obstructing SIU investigations

• SIU points finger at Letsoalo for governance failures, mismanagement claims at RAF

• Double claim payments generally not due to corruption, RAF tells MPs