By Matt Radler
Quarantined TB patients said the hospital where they were staying had broken one promise too many - and so they protested.
They barred Sizwe Hospital staff from entering the facility, sparking an unrest that led to the police arresting eight patients yesterday.
The protesting crowd said they were promised that Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang would visit the hospital on Wednesday, but she did not come.
The hospital, located in Sandringham, Joburg, holds more than 220 patients - many of them infected with the highly contagious multi-drug-resistant TB strains and extremely drug resistant strains. Some of the patients who blocked the gate claimed to have been in the facility for two years or more.
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The eight patients who resisted the police presence at the hospital's fence were taken to Pretoria West Hospital as no prison is equipped to handle them. One of the arrested patients kicked out the windows of the police vehicle and crawled out onto the ground in a shower of broken glass. Officers who grabbed him rushed to wash his blood off their arms.
The detentions sparked more complaints from the crowd at the gate. "They must bring them back, or take us all there together," said one woman who asked not to be named. "They promise and promise and it's just a lie."
The police's handling of the agitated patients also drew protests from staff members. One nurse told The Star that she spends 12 hours a day with the patients, and sympathises with their situation.
"These people are sick, they are not criminals," she said.
Gauteng Health Department spokesperson Zanele Mngadi attributed the unrest to patients' frustration with life at the hospital.
"Some of these patients have spent two years there," she said.
"But their disease is very infectious - there is nothing we can do until they are cured."
Patients at the gate described a host of problems at the hospital, from a high suicide rate to not being able to attend family funerals.
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This article was originally published on page 2 of The Star on May 16, 2008
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