Hospital stats highlight urgency for functioning maternal healthcare system

In many instances a podium finish — coming first, second or third — is quite the achievement.

But news this week that a Gqeberha hospital has come first has been anything but cause for celebration.

Rather, the situation at Dora Nginza Hospital is symbolic of a broken health system.

The Zwide hospital has recorded the highest number of perinatal deaths of any health institution in the Eastern Cape for the third year in a row.

Dora Nginza, which is inundated with mothers-to-be from Gqeberha, Kariega and surrounds, recorded 382 perinatal deaths in 2025, more than 100 more deaths than Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha (274).

These deaths include foetuses with more than 28 days of gestation or an infant who is less than a month old, and fatalities are also referred to as stillbirths and neonatal deaths.

[ Mother blames ‘shocking treatment’ at Dora Nginza for baby’s deathOpens in new window ]

The alarming figures are more than statistics.

Behind each number — 382 — is a grieving family, a mother left traumatised and a child who never had the chance to live.

Over the years, The Herald has reported on accounts from inside the hospital that are deeply disturbing — mothers sleeping on chairs, long delays for Caesarean sections, overcrowded wards and exhausted staff trying to cope with impossible conditions.

These are not isolated complaints. They point to systemic collapse.

Labour relations organiser Thembisa Witbooi, who represents the Health and Other Services Personnel Trade Union of SA (Hospersa) in the Eastern Cape, claimed the provincial health department had long been aware of these challenges yet allegedly continued to ignore the root causes and instead introduced cosmetic interventions that failed to resolve the deepening problems.

And while the health department’s assertion that factors such as chronic illness, missed antenatal appointments and referrals from across the province contribute to the crisis might be valid, this further points to the urgency for a properly functioning maternal healthcare system.