When one day, a friend of Desmond White, the National Coordinator for the Independent Civic Organisation of South Africa (ISANCO), walked into the Uitenhage Provincial Hospital with his wife, he was stunned by what he saw. “Patients, especially elderly patients, lying on the floor, waiting to get medical attention. He said some had been waiting for as long as a week without help,” White relayed.
White’s friend, who is also a member of ISANCO, was heartbroken by the sight of pensioners not receiving help in a timely manner. He added,
As a community leader, White said he could not sit and watch people being treated badly, and that it was part of his responsibilities to speak up for vulnerable people in the community.
The Department acknowledged the pressure on the available beds at the hospital. “This can be attributed to the increase in demand for care as the Kariega community expanded. This community, which is in the referral zone of the Uitenhage Provincial Hospital, has grown with informal settlements that have mushroomed in recent years. Our healthcare workers do their best to ensure the turnaround time is as fast as possible in Kariega, treating those who need urgent and emergency care so we can save lives and limbs,” Media Liaison Officer at Eastern Cape Department of Health, Mkhululi Ndamase said.
“It is worth noting that the picture was taken at the waiting area in casualty which is not supposed to have beds. There are chairs available for patients in the area. On several days, patients who have been treated and discharged choose to sleep there while awaiting full daylight before walking home or their lifts are able to collect them. These are not patients that require treatment. We have also noted that in some cases, ambulance patients do not go to their local clinics, moving directly to hospitals. Bypassing primary care services where patients can receive appropriate care does, regrettably, contribute to longer waiting times at Uitenhage Hospital, where we have to attend to critical, emergency cases first. We urge communities to make use of their local clinics for primary healthcare services,” Ndamase added.
In addition to the shortage of beds, the hospital also has a shortage of staff, making daily operations difficult for the existing skeleton staff. About this, Ndamase said, “We can confirm that based on the current staff establishment there is a 15% vacancy rate in the hospital, with the majority being non-clinical personnel. Because of budgetary cuts and constraints, the department cannot fill these vacancies at present. However, the department remains committed to filling vacancies within the available budget.”
White, who has a granddaughter who qualified as a doctor last year, says the shortage of staff is unacceptable. “We have so many young, unemployed doctors in the country, I’m sitting with one at home and it is just wrong. The hospitals are in dire need of their services, it is evident, yet they are not hiring these children. Tomorrow when the youth turn to drugs, crime and suicide, they will not understand the cause. It is utterly unfair that a young professional in South Africa must travel abroad to find employment, when there’s a need right here in their own country.”
The National Coordinator concluded by saying that the people of the community, and not politics, must come first.
“Action must be taken. All over the country, public hospitals are facing the same or similar challenges. We must stand up and expose these injustices, a change must come.”
