Rob Ferreira Hospital’s dirty laundry trip
Rob Ferreira's laundry is washed in Bushbuckridge and dried and sterilised in Barberton because the hospital does not have a working laundry system
MBOMBELA – Rob Ferreira Hospital cannot do its laundry. This has been the case for years. Lowvelder first reported three years ago that operations were not being carried out in some instances, due to a lack of clean linen.
The Mpumalanga Department of Health has now acquired three laundry machines and two driers to wash and sterilise the hospital’s laundry. However, the space in the hospital earmarked for the laundry room will not be ready for use before next year.
In the meantime, the hospital uses the Ehlanzeni district’s central laundry. Department spokesman, Dumisani Malamule, said it was washed at Tintswalo Hospital in Acornhoek (122 kilometres away from Rob Ferreira) and dried, ironed and sterilised in Barberton Hospital (164 kilometres away from the laundry, and 43 kilometres away from Rob Ferreira to where it must be returned).
The EFF’s chief whip in Ehlanzeni District Municipality, Cyril Chuene, told the paper that he discovered during a recent visit that the hospital sometimes had to borrow linen from others, including Barberton Hospital. Malamule denied this.
In a response to Lowvelder’s query, the department said the hospital will have a functioning laundry before the end of February next year. However, the DA’s spokesman for health in Mpumalanga, Jane Sithole, pointed out that a moratorium is in place on filling non-critical positions in the department.
Out of the province’s 33 hospitals, 18 do not have fully functional laundry services, the largest two, Rob and Witbank, included. “Who will work in the laundry?” she asked. “This system is not cost-effective and it is not productive.”
According to the department’s first-quarter report, which came out this week, it spent around R700 million paying accruals from the previous financial year. “We have a long list of service providers who are not getting paid now as a result. It is a never-ending cycle.”
Sithole added that the National Treasury has not condoned R6 billion in irregular expenditure the department has raked up over the past three financial years, and they, therefore, had to reallocate their existing budget to pay these.
“What happened to the money?” she asked. “There is no money now for anything.” She added that the laundry system has fortunately not affected the maternity ward much, as the hospital appeared to make special provision for that.
Kyle Olivier, ward councillor, said he was not aware of any plans for the laundry. “The only projects currently going on is the revamp of the crematorium, mortuary and construction of tennis courts.”
Chuene said the hospital’s CEO, Fridah Nyathi, had to step down as they do not believe she can effectively run the hospital. “We need someone with experience,” he concluded.
