Dora Nginza infested with huge rodents ‘the size of newborn babies’, doctors and nurses say
For the past year, Dora Nginza Hospital has been grappling with a rat infestation, with the rodents the size of “newborn babies”.
This is according to patients, doctors and nurses who have had run-ins with the fourlegged creatures roaming the halls of one of Nelson Mandela Bay’s biggest hospitals.
Staff complain they have repeatedly raised the issue with their managers, hoping it gets escalated, but nothing has been done.
However, Eastern Cape health spokesperson Yonela Dekeda said the rat problem was being attended to as a matter of urgency, with a fumigation contractor on site.
One doctor described the rat infestation as “an accident waiting to happen”.
“Fortunately, there’s been no incident we’ve heard of where the rats bit a patient.
“The situation is pretty disastrous,” the doctor said.
“There’s been no fumigation taking place and we’ve been buying our own Rattex [rat and mice poison] to keep the numbers low, but it’s not helping.
“There’s faeces everywhere and we’re afraid to even sit on the couches because there are rats already sitting on them; we’re scared to even eat.
“It’s an accident waiting to happen because a child could be bitten.
“There’s only so much we can do.
“We can only speak to our bosses hoping they escalate the matter.
“But nothing’s been done and we can’t exactly tell them what to do.
“There’s definitely a maintenance and cleanliness problem.”
A patient who recently left the neonatal ward after nearly a month at the hospital said she was horrified by rats she compared to the size of a newborn child.
The woman, who did not want to be named, said the rodents were prevalent in almost every place she visited in the gynaecology section of the hospital.
“I was sleeping on the floor to begin with because they do not have enough beds,” she said.
“I was terrified every night because they [rats] roamed the ward freely.
“I did not even want to eat the food.
“How do you trust food from a place that is infested [with rats] in almost every ward?”
A video sent to The Herald shows large rats roaming the halls of the hospital, which
‘There’s faeces everywhere and we’re afraid to even sit on the couches because there are rats already sitting on them; we’re scared to even eat’
serves the majority of residents seeking medical treatment in the Bay.
The section in the video was identified by the doctor who recorded it as the paediatrics wing of the hospital.
This section links up with the maternity ward as well as neonatal.
One nurse said rats running across the halls were a daily occurrence.
“At least they’ve not bitten the newborn babies,” she said.
“We have a lot of them [rats] but, fortunately, I’ve not heard of them attacking or biting any newborn babies.
“We have poison and the general workers try their best to kill them.” A second nurse who works in the maternity ward said her colleagues could not rest at night because that was when the rats came out.
“There’s a room where we keep our dirty linen, bedpans and other stuff we use or take from patients’ rooms and this is where they come from.
“I’m not sure if it’s the smell but they come out in their numbers, especially at night if it’s quiet or the lights are dim.
“You can’t even rest, in fact, you’re afraid to take a bit of a breather because they’re all over the place.
“We’ve sent multiple complaints but there’s never been a fumigator to come and sort this thing out.”
A third nurse who works in the maternity ward said the rats often came out at night and in the early morning.
“If you go into the kitchen at night, you’ll see a lot of them just running around. “They enter the wards too. “If we leave the windows open, they come in through them and probably through the drains as well.
“There’ve been no biting accidents so far, though.
“This has been an ongoing problem,” the nurse said.
A second doctor said seeing a rat at Dora Nginza had become a regular thing and they were not fazed by them any more. “That’s very normal here. Doctors have complained but there’s been no response,” the doctor said.
Dekeda said there was a fumigation contractor on site to clear the rats, adding that the paediatric ward was the most affected at the hospital.
“The rats may have been caused by the pipes of the old lab system.
“Poison has been placed at outside entrances to eliminate the rats and also prevent more rats from getting into the facility.
“The maintenance is also assessing options that include removing the pipe system,” Dekeda said.