UPDATE: Only one death was due to loadshedding
Only one patient died at Letaba Hospital in June due to power outage.
This was revealed in the findings of the task team appointed by the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi to investigate allegations of mismanagement, poor service delivery and unacceptable conditions at Letaba Hospital. The report was officially released at a media briefing held in Polokwane on Tuesday.
Dr Motsoaledi appointed a task team after the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the province claimed that three patients died due to power outage in June.
It was found that only one death of a critically ill diabetes patient who was in the Intensive Care Unit was due to load shedding, after the hospital’s back-up generator failed to supply power.
The minister said the patient relied on a ventilator which no longer had power supply and died while being moved to the operating theater where there was power.
The report states that the second patient who died two days later did not die due to load shedding.
Department of Health spokesperson, Joe Maila, said the suspended CEO of the hospital will be charged with misconduct and whoever wants to take the department to court should do so.
One of the recommendations made in the report was that the hospital’s management should meet regularly to discuss how the institution should be run.
The DA was given 48 hours to react on findings
