Mentally ill moved again

Patients transferred from NGO’s care after deaths

ONE of the NGOs in Pretoria where eight mentally ill people died after being transferred by the Gauteng Department of Health appears to have been “abandoned”.

Emily Hendricks* says she discovered this in trying to find out about her brother, Patrick, 52, who had been moved to Precious Angels in Danville in June.

“After my repeated calls, the management of Precious Angels eventually told me Patrick and all the other patients had been moved to the Pretoria Academic Hospital.”

Patrick was among more than 1 000 patients moved in June from the care of Life Esidimeni to more than 120 NGOs after the department ended its long-standing contract with the private facility.

Last week, it emerged that 36 psychiatric patients had died since being moved. The transfer is being investigated by the Health Ombudsman, Professor Malegapuru Makgoba.

“Patrick has been in a hospital environment since he was 18. He is severely mentally and physically disabled and needs 24-hour care,” Hendricks said.

She had been trying to get the Precious Angels management to say where her brother was.

“They didn’t want to give me the details,” she said yesterday.

“I kept phoning back today about visiting times because I wanted to take my mother to see him. Now they tell me I must phone them before I go to Pretoria Academic, otherwise I can’t get in.

“Nobody is telling us anything. We just want somewhere where we can make sure it is okay for him to be there.

“When we went to Precious Angels, we were not happy. They had all the patients in someone’s house, which it looked like they were trying to convert.

“They were all on top of each other. They had put the beds in the garage and my brother, who is in a wheelchair, and a little boy downstairs. There was no qualified nurse, only caregivers, and we were worried they were not getting fed or being given their medication on time.”

The management of Precious Angels could not be reached yesterday.

Last week, Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu told the legislature patients had been moved from Precious Angels in Atteridgeville, but not because of complaints. She said Life Esidimeni had failed to hand over clinical files. Some patients remained at its Danville centre.

Mathe Viljoen, of the SA Federation for Mental Health, said it appeared the NGOs to which patients had been moved did not have the resources to look after people with severe conditions.

“If the NGOs are negligent, we want them to be held responsible. But it was the responsibility of the department to make sure the NGOs they chose were capable of taking care of them.”

In December, Section27 represented the SA Depression and Anxiety Group, the SA Society of Psychiatrists, and the Association of Concerned Loved Ones of Esidimeni in trying to interdict the department from discharging the patients.

Sasha Stevenson, an attorney at Section27, said yesterday: “Thirty-five mental health users were moved (to Precious Angels’ care), according to the MEC. We now understand all the residents have been moved out.”

Elizabeth Makhoba, from Vosloorus, found Precious Angels abandoned. “I wanted to see where my brother died. I wanted answers.”

Christopher, 25, was epileptic and died weeks after his transfer. “We don’t know his cause of death and we are taking it hard. They didn’t even have a doctor there.”

Department spokesman Steve Mabona would say only that the ombudsman needed an opportunity to investigate.

Documents and patient records had been submitted to Makgoba by his deadline yesterday.

Last week, the Saturday Star reported that the family of Roger Fernhold could not trace him after he had been moved from Life Esidimeni’s Randfontein centre.

This week, they traced him to the Mashemong Home in Hammanskraal, to which he had been moved on June 30.

*Not her real name.