MBOMBELA – By 16:00 on Friday, no elective procedures could be performed in Rob Ferreira Hospital’s theatres due to a lack of clean linen.
The hospital had only received three linen packages for emergency C-sections and at 14:00 that day, another three packages for three other emergencies. Although linen had been sent to Themba Hospital that morning to be sterilised, it wasn’t ready by that afternoon.
Yet, the Department of Health remains mum about the crisis. Lowvelder reported about it on Friday.
Up to 10 sheets and three gowns are used for one procedure. The linen needs to be washed and sterilised. Not only does Rob Ferreira not have its own laundry, its autoclave (a machine used to sterilise equipment) is not working.
The premier’s office had also failed to answer Lowvelder’s questions, although Mr David Mabuza had promised an intervention to turn the province’s collapsing public health-care sector around.
Personnel working at the hospital were fed up. “The wheels have come off completely now,” one of the newspaper’s sources remarked. It also reported that refuse wasn’t being removed and that bags, of which some had even contained medical waste such as amputated limbs, were piling up at the hospital. In addition, some theatre personnel were buying basic necessities such as batteries out of their own pockets.
The hospital had adequate linen yesterday. Although rubbish had been removed over the weekend, there were no bags available to dispose of waste. “Again there are no batteries to operate laryngoscopes,” the sources remarked.
Lowvelder again attempted to reach health spokesman Mr Dumisani Malamule yesterday, but to no avail.
