Sweatshop surgery in Durban's muggy heat

Published Jan 29, 2017

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Durban - Surgeons at Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital are on a “go-slow”, creating a backlog in surgeries due to the air-conditioning systems being down for the past two weeks.

Surgeons told the Sunday Tribune this week that it was impossible to perform elective surgery under such hot conditions.

Aside from wearing their scrubs, which are made from cotton material, they also have to wear face masks, caps and gloves and have to work under strong lighting.

From performing six to seven elective surgeries a day, they say, they are now down to just one or two.

The theatre does not have any other form of ventilation or windows.

“It is impossible for us to perform surgery under such conditions. We begin to sweat profusely and there is also the risk of the sweat falling into the patient, which creates a high risk of infection.

“It is just not the way that surgeons are meant to operate,” said one.

Another surgeon, who was upset by the delay in having the air conditioning system repaired, said temperature played an important part in any surgery. Expecting surgeons to do their work under such extreme conditions was “ridiculous”.

“I cannot understand why it is taking the Department of Health this long to sort the problem out.

“When patients are on anaesthetics, their body temperatures need to be controlled and the air-conditioning helps with this.

“It is impractical to expect us to perform surgery at a normal rate when we are faced with a challenge like this,” said another.

The DA’s health spokesperson, Dr Imran Keeka, who was informed of the situation at the hospital last week, said he had written to the department to have the issue resolved, but he was yet to hear what had happened.

“We have been informed that there is a team on site trying to sort the situation out and there’s a problem with the central air-conditioning system.

“We hope they will act on this soon as it is affecting surgery at the hospital,” he said.

Health Department spokesman Sam Mkhwanazi apologised to the public and said some of the theatres were dysfunctional as the chillers were malfunctioning.

“However, the hospital is able to do emergency operations, using the few theatres that are functioning, and referring patients to other nearby hospitals.

“The service provider is on site attending to the problem of the malfunctioning chillers. We would like to apologise to health-care users, the public and the health professionals for any inconvenience that was caused.”

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Sunday Tribune

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