Livingstone Hospital’s dirty secret
● Flies in wards, medical waste, cigarette butts on floors and a foul stench greet Herald team on unannounced visit to facility
‘Such conditions cannot be allowed — we need to understand why banana peels were thrown on the floor instead of in rubbish bins. atients have equal responsibility not to throw rubbish around when there are dustbins’
Operations allegedly performed in wards, an unbearable stench, and corridors lined with medical waste, dirty linen, rubbish and cigarette butts — this is what awaits patients at Livingstone Hospital in Gqeberha.
When a Herald team visited the facility in Korsten on Saturday, flies swarmed the recovery wards, accentuating the dire condition of the hospital, compounded by a growing backlog of operations.
The filth was documented in photographs.
Some windows were unable to close, leading to patients experiencing cold draughts at night, while the stench of urine permeated the air.
In one of the corridors, the reporter also saw a pool of blood on the floor, while in the foyer of the hospital, rotten banana peels and other rubbish was strewn across the floor.
Cigarette butts, including an empty packet of cigarettes, had also been discarded in the waiting area.
Elsewhere in the hospital, cigarette butts, medical waste, including sterile swabs and masks, as well as dirty linen were seen on some of the other floors.
Adding to the dire situation, patients and hospital staff were left terrified when a group of men charged into the casualty section on Saturday morning, running inside for cover and screaming for help after being shot at.
The incident occurred at about 11.30am.
According to police spokesperson Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg, three people were wounded, one of them fatally, in the shooting in Schauderville. One died of his wounds later.
Janse van Rensburg said the three had been travelling in a double-cab Ford Ranger bakkie.
“As they approached Jameson and Wild streets, the [attackers] fired multiple shots at the occupants,” she said.
“The driver sped off but was shot in the right lower leg, while two other occupants also sustained gunshot wounds.”
Health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said the bakkie, with no canopy, drove at high speed to Livingstone, arriving just before noon.
“Three of them had sustained gunshot wounds in Schauderville while on the way back from a funeral,” he said.
Two of the shooting victims had been in the back of the bakkie.
“When they entered the hospital, the police followed them,” Kupelo said.
“Two of them suffered gunshot wounds to the head. The third suffered a gunshot wound to the leg.
“The incident created a scary scene in casualty as they came in running for cover and screaming for help.
“Casualty staff remained calm and managed the situation very well.”
Cases of attempted murder and murder are under investigation.
Meanwhile, the hospital ’ s MRI machine, which broke earlier this month, has finally been fixed, though the delay has caused a backlog in patients waiting for scans.
Kupelo confirmed that the MRI machine had been faulty.
“The MRI at Livingstone broke on February 7 and was fixed on February 16,” he said.
However, he denied that surgeries were being done in the wards.
“No patients smoke in the rooms, and no surgeries are done in the wards,” he said, despite at least three patients alleging they had heard them being done, separated only by a curtain.
On the rubbish littering the inside of the hospital, Kupelo said: “Such conditions cannot be allowed — we need to understand why banana peels were thrown on the floor instead of in rubbish bins.
“Patients have equal responsibility not to throw rubbish around when there are dustbins.
“The hospital’s quality assurance has to ensure cleanliness all the time.”
Kupelo said whenever there was a mess on the floor, while waiting for the cleaners, a linen saver was used to cover it, hence the blue plastic seen on the floor by the reporter.
“It was a windy day, and rubbish could not be controlled.
“However, the situation is being monitored,” he said.
Patient Happy Mhizha slammed the service he received at the hospital.
The 36-year-old, wearing a bloodied hospital vest, said he had been admitted for a stab wound.
“I started bleeding again [on Friday] after my operation
on Wednesday and I tried to tell the nurses but no-one assisted or took it seriously,” he said.
“They refused to change the vest but they did give me a new bandage.
“Someone also [allegedly] stole my cellphone.”
Ashlene Ross, 48, who fractured her knee two weeks ago, only went for surgery on Friday after a long wait.
“When I got out my vehicle, I fractured my knee.
“I have just been lying here for two weeks, waiting for the operation,” Ross said.
She said patients would receive their breakfast hours late and that she had requested a bed pan, which never arrived.
“I also asked for morphine injections for the pain, but they’re not doing anything.”
Ross said the horrible smell permeating the ward put her off her food.
“I’ve lost my appetite com
pletely,” she said. “I can’t wait to get out of here.”
Ncanyisha July, 67, said: “The nurses don’t come when you need them, they are nowhere to be seen.
“I had a knee replacement and I am still on the road to recovery but one can’t recover like this.”
Tshula Dumisani said he went to Livingstone out of sheer desperation after he fell out a window on a third floor.
“I have been here since February 17, and I thought they would assist.
“Breakfast comes at 10am instead of the usual 8am,” he said.
Another patient, who declined to be named, alleged the medical staff were doing operations inside the wards.
“They close the curtain and cut them open, we can hear it,” the patient, who is in hospital due to kidney problems, said.
This was confirmed by two other patients, who also did not want to be identified.
Peter Cedras, 63, said some of the windows in his room could not close.
“At night, it’s extremely cold and the wind blows directly on my chest,” he said.
“It’s making me even more sick.
“I’m not happy with the service at all. I am also not eating the food, it’s not very appealing.”
The SA Business Confederation subcommittee on health chair and Solidarity health advisory board committee member, Dr Angelique Coetzee, condemned the state of the hospital.
“In SA, the right to access healthcare services is recognised as a constitutional right,” she said.
“The country ’ s constitution, specifically Section 27, guarantees everyone the right to access to healthcare services, including reproductive healthcare.
“So it’s a shame when patients don’t receive adequate care. We will push the national health department to intervene.”
Livingstone recently made headlines due to a go-slow initiated by medical staff, sparked by the health department’s failure to pay staff for working overtime.
The department has since committed to resolve the issue.
In November, the FF+ released a report, highlighting the poor state of at least seven Eastern Cape hospitals.
In the report titled “The horrors of state and provincial hospitals in SA”, the FF+ pointed out that Uitenhage Provincial, Frere, Livingstone, Dora Nginza, Andries Vosloo, Port Elizabeth Provincial and Humansdorp Provincial hospitals were among the 93 healthcare institutions part of the investigation.
The party said the report emerged as a result of a nationwide campaign conducted from July 2022 to August last year after collecting numerous complaints from people across SA.
The report said an outpatient at Livingstone Hospital, only referred to as Annemarie, had been waiting for a hip transplant for 12 years.
Initially told she was number 52 on the list, she was, at the time of the report, down to number 57 and still waiting for the procedure.
She was also informed of a three-year wait due to the long waiting list.
Her husband, Aaron, according to the report, was undergoing treatment at Livingstone and Provincial Hospital, after having had a suspected light stroke in 2022.
He lost more than 20kg and experienced a heart attack during an examination, causing a shoulder injury.
Despite various medical complications, including a kidney stone, delays in testing and treatment reportedly persist, with Aaron’s health deteriorating. ’Though s acting chief Livingstone executive, Hospital Tembisa Notshe, declined to comment on the state of the facility, saying she was not mandated to do so, she shared her excitement about the new CT machine.
“We now have three CT machines,” she said.
“We’ve installed a new machine specifically for casualty patients, and I’m thrilled about it.
“Our teams are actively working on revitalising and upgrading this section of the hospital, dedicated to providing the best possible service to our patients.”