Hospitals spread awareness on Heart Day
LIFE hospitals across the Eastern Cape region held events to promote World Heart Day yesterday.
The theme for this year was to create a heart healthy environment and people were encouraged to become more healthy at their homes and workplaces.
Management at all Life hospitals in the Border-Kei region welcomed their staff members to work yesterday with an apple and a World Heart Day sticker.
In addition, Life St Dominic’s Hospital offered free blood glucose and pressure health checks between 11am and 2pm yesterday. Patients queued in the reception area waiting to be tested. By noon nurses said more than 50 people had come in for free checkups.
Eastern Cape regional manager Bruce Janssens said this was the second year that life hospitals were hosting awareness campaigns to improve health globally by encouraging people to make lifestyle changes and promote ways to be good to their hearts.
Janssens said this lesson was becoming increasingly relevant as reports of obesity, poor diet and physical inactivity in children and young people become more common.
Nomvuyiseko Qabaka, who went for a checkup, said it was a great initiative by the hospital and the visit had been informative. “As a person who is on treatment, we don’t always have time to test every day, so this was a very good initiative by the hospital.”
Other events to promote healthy hearts do take place around the city, including organised walks and runs, health checks, public talks, shows and exhibitions.
● The Sowetan reports that there were 12 files missing in the motor vehicle accidents’ file office at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto, but none of the staff members reported this to management.
This has led the Gauteng department of health to believe that there is a syndicate stealing patients’ files and colluding with law firms to claim money meant for victims of the Road Accident Fund.
MEC Qedani Mahlangu said yesterday a victim had become inquisitive after he received a call from a “tout” asking for additional information from him.
The patient was admitted to Bara in June after a car crash that left him unconscious. The call from the tout rang the alarm of a syndicate last week.
“The patient wanted to know who this person was and why he had his hospital file. He kept on coming back to the hospital but the hospital did not have the file. The hospital only found out on Saturday that the file was with the tout,” Mahlangu said.
She said the tout and a female accomplice were arrested on Saturday and have appeared in court.
The female suspect was found in possession of four files at a party on Saturday night. She was to get a fifth file from the tout when they were arrested.
The female suspect has since been suspended by Alexander Forbes.
Mahlangu said the staff has indicated seven files were missing.
“We are going to take swift action against our staff members who are managing this file of patient records. It can’t be correct that a patient’s record ends up in someone’s boot ... and our staff members have not reported this to management.”
She said no one was allowed to take a patient’s file from the hospital premises, adding that she would be writing to companies providing security at the hospital to ask them to close all loopholes.
“If any of our employees are involved, action will be taken,” Mahlangu said.