Killer bug put babies at risk

’Nursery’ story at RK Khan hid cause for move

A POTENTIALLY lethal bacteria — and not just the refurbishment of its nursery — forced staff at RK Khan Hospital in Chatsworth to remove 15 critically ill babies from its care.

KwaZulu-Natal health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo admitted this week, in response to parliamentary questions from the DA, that several bugs had been detected after the babies were tested.

It was also disclosed that in May and June 14 babies had been treated for sepsis, a severe infection of the blood, in the hospital’s neonatal ICU.

The department said in a statement last month that the babies had been removed to McCord, Addington and St Mary’s hospitals “in order to make way for the refurbishment of a nursery at RK Khan”.

But the DA later revealed that harmful bugs had been detected in the neonatal ICU.

At the time, the department ignored questions about the possibility of a bacterial outbreak.

It reiterated that the transfer of babies from the hospital was necessitated by its plans to renovate the nursery unit, “for better movement and flow and to enhance its compliance with national health norms and standards”.

On Friday, the department said it needed more time to respond to the new information.

An official questioned how confidential responses to

It is better to inform the public of the genuine reason rather than to tell tales

the parliamentary questions had been disclosed to this newspaper.

In 2005, four babies died at the hospital after being struck down by powerful drug-resistant strains of Klebsiella and Acinetobacter infections they had contracted at the facility.

Imran Keeka, the DA’s provincial spokesman for health, said his own investigation “confirmed that the nursery was being closed as a result of contamination by Enterococcus faecium, a bacteria normally found in low levels in the colon”.

Keeka said that, according to hospital sources, an infection control team was still trying to establish the source of the infection.

He said the hospital should have been transparent about why the nursery was closed.

“It is better to inform the public of the genuine reason rather than to tell tales that it was for renovations and upgrades only. This is the responsible thing to do — not to shoot from the hip with deception even when matters are sensitive for the fear of reprisal.”