Hospital unfair to grieving family

A lady from Port Elizabeth, Nolisolethu Zozi, tragically passed away on New Year’s Eve at the Port Alfred Hospital.

Her family is grieving and were told to come to the hospital on Wednesday January 2 to have the body released.

However, when they arrived, they were told that the person in charge of registering deaths was still on leave and not available.

This means no registration of death is possible and the body cannot be released.

To the family it seems strange that only one person has access to the system to register deaths. The family is still in mourning and are now left feeling angry that there was no back-up for the person on leave.

Having spoken to a doctor at the hospital, he told me that this situation has been going on for a long time.

Zozi’s family have to return to Port Elizabeth after the holiday and will now need to travel back to Port Alfred when the death has been registered. This is very unfair and has not only caused a great deal of disappointment and frustration but is also unacceptable that a single person could delay the process.

As a church minister, I call upon the health department to intervene and improve health care at the hospital.

This appears to be a management issue and must be sorted out immediately to prevent this from happening again to someone else.

At this time, we are also unsure as to when the hospital will fulfil its duties so we can begin the funeral preparations.