Hospital’s negligence slammed

AN EERSTE River family has accused a local hospital of negligence and an uncaring attitude to its patients after an elderly, mentally ill relative wandered off the facility without the staff noticing.

The family of Alec Williams, 73, said they were shocked to see him return home alone on Tuesday morning after they had left him at Eerste River Hospital, where he was admitted a few hours earlier.

His daughter, Katherine Williams, said their father was back home after he apparently “wandered off ” the trauma unit.The family had since taken him to Groote Schuur where he is now admitted.

“When my mother left him in the trauma unit, my father was still in a state of confusion and doctors were arranging to perform some blood tests and scans to check exactly what was happening in his brain… that led to the sudden confusion. One would think leaving a loved one in a hospital environment is the safest thing to do, but it is clearly not so at Eerste River Hospital. The fact that he had a mental problem did not bother staff to be extra vigilant and look after my father,” she said.

Mark van der Heever, spokesman for the provincial department of health, confirmed the family had since lodged a complaint against the hospital through the complaints hotline. “The department will be investigating the matter and provide (the family) with detailed feedback pertaining to (the) complaint,” he said.

Williams, who accused the hospital of being negligent, said after her father arrived at their home, she called the hospital to ask how he was doing.

She was shocked when a nurse said she was not aware that her father was admitted there.

“The nurse later phoned me and said they could not find my father in the hospital. The nurse casually said my father must have wandered off the premises. She said the hospital would phone the police to assist with the search of my father, and they would provide us with feedback, and possibly come to my home to check if he had not come back here. I am yet to receive a call from them to update me about the whereabouts of my father.”

Abe Williams’s wife, Johanna, blamed “poor supervision” by health workers for the disappearance of her husband: “If they were vigilant enough, particularly when dealing with mental patients, he would not have wandered off without anyone noticing. For them not to even report back to us after noticing that he had wandered off is beyond me. It is indicative of their uncaring attitude.”

Damaris Kiewiets, chairwoman of the Cape Metro Health Forum – an oversight body that oversees informal clinic committees across the city – said over the past five years, service delivery at Eerste River Hospital has deteriorated so much that patients were reluctant to be transferred there. “Complaints about that hospital are numerous. In the past five years it went from being an excellent hospital to one of the worst district hospitals in the province.

“Its reputation has suffered so much that it is now known (as) a hospital to die (at) due to poor service.”