Hospitals failing poor

ON AN unannounced visit to Khayelitsha Hospital recently, members of a Parliament committee found patients lying on the floor and other patients slumped in chairs – having been at the hospital for nearly 24 hours. There were severe staff shortages and a dire shortage of beds, the committee also found.

The committee came under fire from the provincial health authorities, who alleged the visit impaired the dignity of the hospital’s staff – some whom reportedly wanted to resign.

The SA Medical Association also expressed concern and slammed the visit as “unacceptable, unethical and undemocratic”.

What Sama and the provincial health authorities seem to overlook was the fact that the visit was prompted by the death of Khayelitsha resident Tamara Fuzane after allegedly being assaulted by staff at this hospital three years ago.

While the matter still has to be resolved, committee member Dumisani Ximbi may have had a point when he said the hospital was “failing the people of Khayelitsha”.

Too often people, particularly those from poor communities, are subjected to long waits and poor services at public health facilities in the province. Most of the time these failings speak to poor leadership and management at these health facilities. They also speak to the lack of vision by the provincial government, whose decision it was to shut down the GF Jooste Hospital in Manenberg five years ago.

In Mitchells Plain it is no different. Here patients have grown accustomed to camping out at the “Day Hospital”. Some quip that the name means just that –you go to spend a day at the hospital. Mediocre services and unhelpful staff have become the norm at some health facilities in city. Rather sad is the fact that this happens in disadvantaged areas where people have no other choice.

There may be merit in the assertion that the committee’s visit at Khayelitsha Hospital was unacceptable. But a counter-assertion could be that staff and the hospital management were caught unawares, with no time to prepare the facility for the visit.

Patients lying on the floor or slumped in chairs for an entire day should be enough for the authorities to take drastic measures. It is hoped that lessons can be learnt from this saga, and that such lessons would include raising the standard of services to the poorest of the poor.