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It’s enough to make you sick!

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IF YOU want to know what real stress feels like, get admitted to a private hospital. Good heavens! You get admitted for a mild case of one thing and may end up leaving with other ailments. So hear me out. I recently went to a private Durban hospital and waited to be admitted.

The absolute first priority is the authorisat­ion number – to secure payment.

Then you have to wait while the staff check to see if a bed is available.

This means whiling away your time staring at the walls.

After a bed is located, they enquire if you are fit to walk or require a wheelchair.

I mean, I am in hospital, I think a wheelchair is best.

After a few lifts and stares from curious people, you arrive at your ward and are greeted by fellow-patients.

You then get comfy in your bed, stare back at your fellowinma­tes and wonder what conditions they have been diagnosed with.

A few hours later, you unearth that you are lying near someone with highly contagious gastritis. Great! So the entire ward (four people) gets gastro and there is only one toilet in the ward.

Being an OCD freak, I ensure I check the staff cleaning schedules, and find the toilets were last cleaned 24 hours ago.

You got a better chance of survival at home.

I ended up using the toilets down the hallway – that’s if I could make it out of bed.

I had a drip connected to my arm, so I often had to ask nurses for help.

That was if and when they heard the sound of the bell.

So, being the hotshot I think I am, I furiously ask one of the nurses: “Do you know who I am?”

Of course she did not know who I was. Why would she? Anyway, I go on to explain my position in the media and she looks like “whatever” and offers a somewhat apology.

“We are so busy, hey. Everyone in the hospital is so sick.”

But what got me hot under the collar was the sample of stool left in the bathroom for 12 hours by the woman who had gastritis. No one gives a damn. All you hear is angry (diabetic) patients, who are supposed to eat on time, and apparently busy nurses.

Please let’s not even talk about the tattoos and hanging earrings worn by these profession­als.

Is this what private health care has become?

I shake my head thinking about the state of those 94 patients, who died of dehydratio­n and diarrhoea after they were moved to 27 unlicensed facilities. Did they have a say?

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