'Pit of hell' hospital ignores cancer patients' plight: DA

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Published Jan 18, 2017

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Durban – The Democratic Alliance on Wednesday accused the KwaZulu-Natal provincial health department of ignoring the plight of cancer patients in the north of the province.

DA health spokesman Imran Keeka said the main district hospital – Empangeni’s Ngwelezana Hospital – was “rapidly becoming a pit of hell with cancer patients the worst affected”.

Keeka said that he had been informed that the hospital’s mammogram machine, its fluoroscopy machine and its CT scanner were either broken or not functioning properly.

Keeka said a senior staff member at the hospital told him that Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) has run out of storage space.

“Older images are being deleted to make place for new ones. As a result, patient information critical for follow-up visits is being lost. Particularly alarming is that if certain images are required in court proceedings against the department, there is a strong possibility that they will no longer be available. This leaves the door to litigation wide open,” he said.

The hospital’s mammogram machine, which is used for breast cancer screening, has not been working since the beginning of July and several hundred patients have had be have their screening dates rescheduled.

News of the mammogram not working was reported by ANA in October, during Breast cancer Awareness month.

Confirmation of the issues surrounding the fluoroscopy and the storage of radiological images could not immediately be confirmed. A fluoroscopy is an x-ray imaging machine that shows real-time moving object inside a person's body. '

One health official said: "Basically if you've swallowed a live rat by mistake, that [fluoroscopy] machine will show that rat playing inside your stomach through an x-ray image."

Comment could not immediately be obtained from the KwaZulu-Natal health department.

Keeka said: “Earlier this week the DA said enough is enough. We also called on KZN Premier Willies Mchunu to axe MEC Dhlomo. It is examples of hospitals like this – and there are many – that must motivate him to act.”

African News Agency

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