Keeping patients in limbo unacceptable

Our public health system is broken. We see it every day – be it clinics that don’t have medicine to hand out to patients or people having to wait hours, if not days, to even get to see a doctor. Livingstone Hospital is no different. Some patients have to lie in a bed for up to a month before a surgeon eventually operates on their ankles or arms. The hospital prioritises more pressing emergencies, leaving patients in limbo for weeks at a time.

This means patients cannot leave their beds and wait it out at home until theatre space is available because the hospital’s system does not allow it.

This often means patients are separated from their families or they are on prolonged leave of absence from their jobs for weeks on end.

The hospital has defended its policy, saying because 90% of the work done by orthopedic surgeons is trauma-related, the surgeons do not know how busy they will be on a particular day and thus need patients available if there is time to do their surgery.

Granted, the hospital is flooded with orthopaedic patients, with Livingstone Hospital CEO Thulane Madonsela saying it admits between 120 and 140 orthopedic patients a week, but there has to be a better way.

There are hopelessly too few surgeons and those who are working in the hospital can only perform so many operations a day.

Bearing in mind that public hospitals throughout the country are faced with a myriad challenges, with budget and staff shortages generally chief among them, hiring more specialist surgeons and expanding theatre capacity at Livingstone – while necessary – may not be possible.

Perhaps a shift from the current way of allocating funds and scheduling could offer surprising solutions to the problem.

But to continue with the status quo and keep patients in a hospital bed for weeks, placing their livelihoods at risk, is unfair and unacceptable.