Pretoria – A senior staffer at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital has lamented that nine months after the facility was gutted by fire, the day-to-day experience for health-care workers and patients has become increasingly frustrating with major refurbishments stalled through red-tape and political bungling.
Professor Adam Mahomed, head of internal medicine at the hospital, told broadcaster eNCA that despite high-level “rumblings” and supposed interventions from top government officials in the province, the hospital is in shambles almost a year after the fire.
“To be honest, nothing of substance has occurred from last year till now. There are a lot of rumblings and conversations happening now. The MEC of Health (Nomathemba Mokgethi) was at the hospital on Friday but if you are asking me, has anything happened to fix up the hospital, the answer is zero,” Mahomed said.
“We are still running at 40% capacity. Patients are getting sub-optimal care, waiting long times.”
He said there are “so many tender issues” bedevilling the major health facility which used to treat tens of thousands of patients annually.
“We are not better off than we were nine months ago. Now, all of a sudden, people want to have conversations. There is no plan, and every time we hear, it is money from DID (Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development) maybe (in) April. We have lots of private companies wanting to get involved. Again, politics, and DID red tape is compromising patients care,” Mahomed said.
He said the day-to-day experience for medical staff and patients at the hospital is frustrating.
“We don’t have access to adequate parking. It might seem pedantic, but when you have a nurse, a doctor and patients waiting for an hour for a parking bay, or two hours for a parking bay, and you are parking on the street, crime is still happening, vehicles are getting stolen – you kill the morale. The area where the parking is, is propped up and millions are being paid for the last nine months to fix this but nothing has happened,” Mahomed said.
“Conversations about parking occurred in April but nothing of value has happened. Can you imagine for an hour in the sun, waiting to start your clinic at 8am but now you are waiting for parking. The number one concern is about parking. An elderly patient with heart failure has to walk half a kilometre to get into the hospital.”
Mahomed said hopefully, the casualty department would be re-opened by March.
“Every single system is crumbling. You sit in hospital waiting for five to 10 days as an in-patient for a CT-scan. You are occupying a bed, just for a CT-scan. We can’t even get a CT-scan done in a timeless fashion. Same thing with the MRI machines. Their tenders have been put out, their tenders have been cancelled, tenders not going through. It is just an apathy to get the right care to the right patient at the right time,” the professor said.
He said what is going on is just conversations but without action. He said the public protector has reached out to the hospital and has been given a statement of what needs to be done.
“I think there is need for accountability on why this has taken nine months and (it’s just) conversations happening. Can you imagine, there is no blueprint, there is no structural reporting to date on the area damaged. Nine months later. No one is held accountable,” Mahomed said.
“When I kill a patient, I am held accountable. When politicians are killing patients, it is just another day in office. I am sorry for being hard.”
In August, the Gauteng department of health opened a case of theft at the Hillbrow police station after several appliances were stolen at the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital following the fire outbreak in April.
“The opening of the case follows a reconciliation process to account for equipment and items taken to other facilities to ensure continuity of care.
“It was through this process that the missing items were identified prompting the hospital management to open a case of theft as the items could not be accounted for,” said Motalatale Modiba, head of communication at the Gauteng Health Department.
The stolen items include 10 desktop computers, a fridge, six plasma television sets and three laptops which have “disappeared” since the fire incident in April.
“Immediately after the fire no one was allowed inside the building. As a result, security was deployed in the staff residence area and to also monitor the perimeter fence of the hospital, including gate 1 and gate 2,” Modiba said .
“The security personnel has since been redeployed to their original posts except in areas declared unsafe.”
IOL