My nightmare at a public hospital

Ihad a rotten tooth removed at a public hospital some time in recent years. I couldn’t sleep the weekend prior to the extraction. My left cheek was swollen and I could barely speak nor eat. The pain was agonising. On that Monday morning I headed to the hospital dental clinic where I was informed that I had an infection, given medication and asked to return the next day. The next morning I was taken from pillar to post until I sternly told the personnel that I just wanted the tooth removed.

I was finally shown to the extraction room. One dentist lady pointed at me and asked me to go in. I thought that I was in luck, but boy, was I wrong! She did not return my greeting. Instead, she barked, ‘atlhama!’ – then she peered at and probed the tooth with a retractor before plunging an injection into my gum. She then disappeared. Her assistant, a polite lady, took me through the procedure and assured me that the pain would be temporary. After a while,

Cruella the dentist returned. Her nostrils were flared like she was assaulted by the stench of a dead dog and her face was contorted into a highstrung expression as if she was about to carry out an execution. She called for the pliers, opened my mouth and placed the number two pliers on the rotten tooth. I squirmed. She shouted at me to lay still and impatiently pushed me back onto the bed, placed her thigh on my torso, the weight of her body stiff against me, placed her arms around my neck, and started twisting and turning the tooth violently. The anesthesia was clearly weak because the pain was horrible. My bladder and sphincter muscles also threatened to fail me. Just when I thought that the end would never come, she finally removed the tooth. Tears involuntarily ran down my cheeks. She briefly showed me the tooth, took off her gloves and left. If at all the tooth fairy exists, then she’s the tooth devil!

I am sure that tooth would have still come out even if she had not fought with me. When I left, I caught sight of her seated in a room opposite, bizarrely staring right back at me. She sure gave me the heebie jeebies.

I am never going back there again; once bitten twice shy…

I recently remembered Cruella the dentist when someone complained to me about appalling service they had received at this same hospital, which has, over the years, been in the news for all the wrong reasons. I know some people who have gone through worse experiences than mine. Malpractice and negligence seems to be the order of the day. Mistakes do happen, but they should be few and wide apart. Some of the incidents could have been thwarted if the workers were empathetic and professional. Not even being overworked is justification to mistreat people.

Some years ago, a woman won a case where she had sued the ministry after a gauze was left in her womb following a procedure. Imagine!

The Ministry of Health is besieged with challenges ranging from limited resources, poor infrastructure but it is the service that leaves a lot to be desired. Many people opt for private facilities even for simple procedures because the process at public hospitals can be tedious and the service appalling. There are exceptions, but they are few. The problem is institutional and can be improved not only through incentives from the employer, but an attitude transformation.

One can tell from an encounter with some workers that they are merely there for the pay cheque; they are not passionate about their jobs nor do they have compassion for people. Sometimes you can instinctively tell from the onset that you will probably not receive quality service. Fa gongwe motho wa teng o tla bo a bodulugile e ka re ledombi le tlopetswe yeast. A tsitlaletse e ka re koko e sitwa. Fa o mmuisa o suma hela e ka re tlhware e komeditse potsana… Itjakg!