Durban - Visiting a family member at Addington Hospital proved exhausting for a cardiac patient who had to walk up 13 floors because the lifts were not working - again.
Pensioner Ronaldo da Silva, 70, said that on Wednesday he walked up 13 floors to visit his uncle who had been admitted to hospital.
Da Silva said he was joined by other visitors, some carrying babies. “Visiting hours are for an hour. It must have taken me about 20 minutes to walk up the stairs.”
He said he had asked staff to allow him to use the service lift but this was refused because the lift would be used to deliver patients’ dinner.
He added that the lifts were also not working yesterday.
“Once the lift only went up to the fourth floor and we all had to get out and walk to go further,” Da Silva said.
The pensioner said patients were also in the lift, which was full. “A fight nearly broke out in the lift,” Da Silva said. He said an employee told him that the department did not service the lifts properly.
Department spokesperson Noluthando Nkosi said only one of the four lifts at the front of the hospital was working. One of the lifts would be repaired in two weeks’ time because major parts needed to be shipped in. “The remaining lifts will not be repaired at this stage but completely replaced early in the new year.”
The hospital has been plagued by broken lifts this year. Three weeks ago, patients and visitors were forced to use the stairs. In September, sick patients waited nearly an hour after the lifts stopped working, and a month earlier, the hospital stopped admitting new patients because the lifts were faulty.
In June, patients went without food when the lifts stopped working.