Johannesburg - The Gauteng Department of Health has issued Tembisa Hospital chief executive Dr Lekopane Mogaladi with a notice of suspension after Health Ombudsman Professor Malegapuru Makgoba’s damning report published last week.
Mogaladi has five days to furnish the department with reasons why he should not be suspended, said Gauteng Health MEC Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi.
Mokgethi said they had issued the suspension notice to Mogaladi in line with Makgoba’s recommendations after he found that there was gross medical negligence at the hands of doctors, nurses and food handlers, leading to the avoidable death of patient Shonisani Lethole.
The ombud also called for the appointment of a forensic investigator to determine if senior management at the hospital was fit to do their job.
Makgoba’s report calls for disciplinary action against the CEO and about 20 staffers, including doctors, nurses, clinical associates and food handlers, who had failed in their duty of care, and lied and/or falsified information.
Mokgethi, speaking to Talk Radio 702 on Monday morning, said the department was following Makgoba’s recommendations and in accordance with the law
“We are doing this in line with the law because they have a senior management handbook which prescribes how to go about suspending or taking action against senior staff,” she said.
But Lerato Mthunzi, the president of the Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union, said the health workers and the CEO were being used as scapegoats by the Gauteng Health Department and the National Department of Health, as their had been a go-slow over a lack of PPE, which the department knew of, at the time of Lethole’s death.
“The staff had received communication from management that a decision was taken not to give them PPE. The only people who would be given PPE would be people who were working in so-called high risk wards with confirmed positive cases,” said Mthunzi.
Mthunzi said staff in non-Covid-19 wards were given plastic aprons and surgical masks, and in protest, they embarked on a go-slow.
“They knew (department), they reported to the MEC and the HOD and they knew Tembisa was a problem,” said Mthunzi.
In his report, Makgoba also found that permanent staff at the casualty ward were refusing to work in the A&E isolation area, citing occupational safety concerns.
“In the A&E isolation area, it was impossible to maintain physical distancing; other patients were kept on stretchers.
“On the 18th June 2020, Mr. Vijendra Gajraj (Area Manager: Emergency Unit), wrote a memo to the nurses informing them that they were expected to work in the Isolation area and if they refused, they had to provide reasons for refusal to enable management to address their concerns accordingly.
“Mr. (Wilfred) Mothwane, the Deputy Director responsible for the area, was informed about the challenges, and he subsequently addressed the staff on June 22, and still, the matter remained unresolved.
“It was evident that the hospital was not ready for the challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic. There was no evidence provided that the risks involved were properly assessed, comprehensively reviewed and addressed at a management level.
“No evidence was obtained to demonstrate that the risk was not escalated to District, Provincial and National level. The World Health Organisation (WHO) Covid-19: interim guideline dated May 27 on Clinical management, stipulated that persons with symptoms that met the case definition for suspected Covid-19 should immediately be given a medical mask and directed to a single room.”
“If a single room is not possible, then group patients with similar clinical diagnosis and based on epidemiological risk factors, with a spatial separation (at least 1 m between patients).
“Suspected cases should not be cohorted together with confirmed cases. In the case of TPTH the suspected cases were mixed with confirmed cases in Ward 23,” the ombud said.
Mthunzi said they were meeting with Mokgethi on Monday afternoon and would be raising several issues, relating to Steve Biko, Tembisa and Edenvale hospitals, while also addressing the issue of unemployment of nurses and their dissatisfaction with the report.
“Suspending the CEO of the hospital and other staff members will not fix the rot within the public healthcare system. Instead, this gives the department an opportunity to hide behind scapegoats while doing absolutely nothing to resolve major issues,” said Mthunzi.
Meanwhile, Mokgethi said the department was doing its best to fix issues and improve, but she said each health worker had to take responsibility.
She said she would be meeting with hospital CEOs to discuss the reports and ways they could each learn from the experience of Tembisa.
She said she had also spoken with Premier David Makhura and they had agreed that they would reprioritize the budget in a bid to build additional structures at the hospital.
“We will set up a team to go to Tembisa to see how many structures we will be able to build, so at least we will be able to assist.
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