Patients forced to sleep on dirty linen after washing machine breaks
The local hospital is slowly becoming a risk area rather than the safe haven it is meant to be.
LYDENBURG – The local hospital is slowly becoming a risk area rather than the safe haven it is meant to be. Patients have been forced to sleep on dirty linen for the past few weeks.
According to an informed source, the hospital’s washing machine is broken.
“Patients are sleeping on linen which is dirty and not hygienic. Different people with different sicknesses are treated on a daily basis and each has their own bacteria or infection which can be transmitted from one to another,” the source said.
When linen is washed, microbial counts are significantly reduced.
“When the local hospital informed the Provincial Department of Health about the situation it provided it with a temporary solution. Linen is being transported to various other hospitals in the region to be washed on a daily basis. This solution cannot even clean half of the linen. At the end of the day, it does not solve the problem.”
The Provincial Department of Health confirmed that the washing machine was broken. “The purchasing of any equipment costing more than R5 000, such as heavy-duty washing machines, is planned over a three-year cycle. It has been included in the three-year strategic plan. According to the supplier we use, the washing machine was manufactured overseas and parts are not readily available. They also have to be imported and it would therefore be very difficult to put a time limit on a permanent solution for the hospital.” said Mr Dumisani Malamule, spokesman for the Mpumalanga Department of Health.
According to the supplier we use, the washing machine was manufactured overseas and parts are not readily available. They also have to be imported and it would therefore be very difficult to put a time limit on a permanent solution for the hospital.” said Mr Dumisani Malamule, spokesman for the Mpumalanga Department of Health.
Linen will continue to be washed at other hospitals.
The department has in the meantime awarded a contract to a service provider called Coolbreeze, for the maintenance and repair of equipment such as washing machines.
According to the department, the patients are not facing any kind of risk related to the unavailability of clean linen because they get assistance from other hospitals such as Mapulaneng, Sabie, Matibidi and Middelburg.
“The vehicles being used to transport the linen depend on the size of the laundry load. For a large amount of soiled linen, a Toyota Dyna truck is used and a Toyota Hilux for a smaller load. Whenever our vehicles are out of order, we source from other health institutions such as Bethal Hospital or the Department of Health District Offices in Mbombela,” Malamule added.
When the paper questioned a medical professional about the health risks associated with the soiled linen, he confirmed that it is not only a health hazard.
“This relates to bad hygiene and it is definitely not ethical to let patients sleep on dirty linen. When a patient walks into that hospital they either have an abnormal infection, germ or bacteria in their system hence they are already not healthy. When they then have to sleep on dirty linen they might get in contact with some other infections they did not have before,” he said.
