As concerns about the operations at Helen Bishop Home in Kimberley continue to grow, the centre has indicated that services at the facility are in crisis after the Northern Cape Department of Health failed to pay the salaries of care workers and other staff members.
AS CONCERNS about the operations at Helen Bishop Home in Kimberley continue to grow, the centre has indicated that services at the facility are in crisis after the Northern Cape Department of Health failed to pay the salaries of care workers and other staff members.
The line manager of Helen Bishop Home, Chrissie Damon, said they encountered financial difficulty after the provincial department failed to pay staff for three months.
“We are funded by the provincial Department of Social Development and the provincial Department of Health as we care for severely disabled children. There was a contract in place between Helen Bishop Home and the provincial Department of Health that had to be renewed every three years. The contract expired in March 2024.
“Last year we noted that the contract needed to be renewed. We submit reports to the department on a monthly basis as well as the medical reports of the children, which would include the physiotherapy and doctor’s visits the children received.
“In March there was no correspondence from the department. In May our staff did not get paid. We have 50 staff members, which includes caregivers, five physiotherapists, a manager and two nurses.
We used our entire savings to pay for the May salaries of our staff. The contract with the department states that the department must notify us within three months if funding would be stopped from their side. We had no communication from them,” said Damon.
Staff members were also not paid for June and July, however, they have now signed an interim funding contract for three months with the department and managed to get the salaries for June and July.
“With the interim funding contract, we are not paying staff members according to their employment contracts, but only a basic salary. The payment that was made in June and July did not include other items such as the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF).
“All the physiotherapists and the assistants, the social worker and the manager have not been paid. The social worker is half subsidised by the provincial Department of Social Development. We were forced to sign the interim funding contract as nobody would have been paid if we had not signed it.”
Damon said the institution has been placed in a precarious position.
“This is a growing concern. It is not as if the workers and children can just disappear or operations can stop the moment the department decides to stop the funding. Also, with this contract, there was supposed to be a task team from the Department of Health that had to pay a visit to the facility and see what needed to be put in place at the centre.
“That task team has still not been here. We sent e-mails to the head of the Health Department, to the Office of the Premier, as well as to the national director-general of Health. We have received a response from the premier stating that they will have engagements with the provincial department.
“Social Development pays a stipend for the 33 children under the age of 18. These funds can only be used towards the needs of the children and not for the daily running costs of the institution. The needs of the children who are older than 18 years are funded through their monthly social disability grant,” Damon said.
She added that the daily running cost of the facility is their greatest challenge.
“We are an NPO and we do not generate our own income. We depend on subsidies and donations. Many people do not donate to the running costs, like staff salaries and maintenance of the facility, but rather donate things such as groceries and toiletries,” Damon said.
The Department of Health spokesperson, Lulu Mxekezo, confirmed that the care workers had been paid.
“The department has finalised and signed a conditional agreement with the board of Helen Bishop which unlocked the payment of salaries for care workers,’ said Mxekezo.
The Department of Social Development committed to respond once all information had been verified.
