3 hospitals’ diet nightmare
MBABANE – Two hospitals in the Manzini Region and one in Hhohho were reported to be feeding patients unhealthy food.
A catering company was allegedly at the centre of the diet nightmare for the three hospitals and the matter was reported to the Ministry of Health.
The hospitals will not be named for now to give the catering company a chance to respond to our questions, as they were not available and they are yet to appear before the tender tribunal as the ministry was dealing with the matter.
A formal document seen by this publication, detailing how inpatients at the hospitals were prejudiced, was sent and its receipt confirmed by the Principal Secretary (PS) of the Ministry of Health, Dr Simon Zwane.
The letter states that the catering company had been incompetent from the day they were awarded the contract of offering catering services. It was revealed that complaints due to the alleged incompetency of the catering company were first reported in 2021.
It was further established that the catering company would on different occasions serve food to patients in the three hospitals after 2pm, which caused agitation since some patients take their medications with food at a set time on a daily basis. Sources revealed that this act was seen as a threat to the health conditions of admitted patients at the hospitals.
It further notifies the ministry that there was a recent incident where there was an abrupt suspension of services on Monday, September 26, 2022 during lunch time. The letter said the suspension of services was a serious indication of unprofessionalism, viewed as very insensitive and inconsiderate.
INCEPTION
Pursuant to a performance report dated August 11, 2022, it was highlighted that there was a poor performance of the caterer since inception of contract. A quarterly report recently submitted to the ministry by one of the facilities stated that the poor service the facility received from the catering company highly compromised the diets administered to inpatients.
“As recently reported that the company currently deployed to the facility is not at all meeting the basic needs of patients’ diets, the Food Services Department is being flooded with numerous complaints from the wards, including the kitchen staff. The kitchen staff is concerned about the non-provision of PPE and non-payment of salaries. In the event there are extreme dietary needs in the wards, personal monetary provisions have been made for the procurement of food supplies. On numerous occasions I have used my personal funds to acquire patients’ food. The latest Monday incident was too much to bear,” reads the correspondence.
According to the letter, government was never in arrears of payments due to the caterers since the inception of the contract in September 1, 2021 and, therefore, there was no justification for the act.
“The caterer had been accustomed to receiving payments on the following month of invoicing, which the facility had been arranging. However, the contract states a 45-day settlement upon receipt of invoice and claims,” reads the communiqué.
A senior hospital employee has disclosed that there were extremes and strict dietary needs in the wards such that personal monetary provisions had to be made for the procurement of food supplies on numerous occasions.
INCIDENTS
Sources have revealed that there had been ward and kitchen incidents in one of the hospitals which was agitated by the sudden and absence of meals.
“Supper was served late at night and in some weeks there has beed no tea at all. This led to altercations with the ward staff and the caterer’s staff, whereby they were made to enter the patient wards all by themselves to serve patients; and this was not safe and affected the delivery of that service,” disclosed the source.
It was further gathered that the catering company that was granted the catering service contract in the three hospitals had unresolved labour issues with its employees. Well placed sources have revealed that there was a long standing issue of unpaid salaries of the caterer’s staff, as the staff felt they were risking their lives for nothing in return.
“In a July 2022 meeting that was held by the facilities that receive catering services from the caterer, the matter was brought to the attention of the caterer and they promised to settle their staff’s salaries, as they were not being owed by government.
According to another source, labour compliance procurement procedures require that companies who are recommended for tender award need to be labour compliant. None payment of salaries is against labour laws and a violation of basic human rights. A questionnaire was sent to the catering company through its managing director’s Whatsapp number and he had not responded by close of business on Friday. The caterer was asked if he was aware of the health and diet issues at the three hospitals and whether there were issues of unpaid salaries to his staff which might have caused the problems.