Hospital phones crash

ISOLATED: PATIENTS’ FAMILIES FRANTIC AS THEY FAIL TO MAKE CONTACT

We ask family members and the public to bear with us as we overhaul the system.

Kwara Kekana Department of health spokeswoman

Cellphones to be utilised in short term as old-fashioned switchboard is replaced with a voice-over IP system.

Families of patients at the Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital in Pretoria couldn’t reach their loved ones for at least a week after the private automatic branch exchange (PABX) switchboard phone system crashed.

According to the Gauteng department of health, the problem only affected telephone lines, not e-mails.

But Democratic Alliance shadow MEC for health Jack Bloom said this was of little comfort to distressed family members and patients who were desperate to reach their loved ones amid restrictions on visits isolating mental health patients.

Bloom said he had received complaints from family members who could not reach the hospital last week, with one distressed mother even resorting to phoning the police as she couldn’t reach her daughter, a patient at the hospital.

“We apologise for the inconvenience the situation has caused to our stakeholders,” said department spokeswoman Kwara Kekana.

The collapse of the PABX switchboard phone system came at a time when the department had started the process of implementing a long-term solution.

Switchboard and telephone line issues have affected other hospitals, such as Thelle Mogoerane Regional Hospital, in the past year, said Bloom.

The department was due to embark on a project to upgrade the network infrastructure at Weskoppies Hospital, which includes the installation of a voice-over internet protocol (IP) system. But this would only be completed in the next six months.

“We would like to appeal to members of the public, especially to family members who have loved ones at the facility, to bear with us as we work towards overhauling the communication system,” said Kekana. “The facility will be communicating with stakeholders in the next couple of days informing them of the temporary contact details.”

On Wednesday, the department activated a backup solution that saw the hospital’s 24 wards supplied with cellphones to ensure members of the public and other stakeholders could make contact with the facility, and vice versa.

Facilities, such as Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital, Leratong Hospital, Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital and Steve Biko Academic Hospital have already had the voice-over IP solution installed.