A patient of Sabie Hospital has been waiting for a hip replacement in this hospital for 67 days.
Dietlof Ziegfried Vermaak (65) recently fell and broke his hip. He was admitted to the hospital for assistance, but his family have raised concerns about the treatment he has been receiving.

According to Pierre Nothnagel, his son-in-law, Vermaak needs a hip replacement. This needs to be done in Themba Hospital, but for 64 days Vermaak has been lying in pain, with neither of the hospitals communicating with him.

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“He is in a lot of pain, getting depressed and seemingly not getting help,” Nothnagel told Lowvelder. “He also has bedsores.”

Additionally the family claim that he is not receiving the pain medication he needs. “We want serious action to be taken, he must go for an operation,” he said.

The spokesman for the provincial Department of Health, Dumisani Malamule, did not address Vermaak’s specific case when the newspaper asked him about it. He only explained that a hip replacement is a specialised operation that cannot be performed at Sabie, which is a district hospital.

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Vermaak is on the waiting list at Themba, which has an orthopaedic surgeon.

“While waiting for a transfer to Themba Hospital, the patient is receiving analgesic, paracetamol four times daily, Brufen three times daily and Tramadol three times daily, and pethidine has been prescribed every six hours on request if the patient still feels pain,” explained Malamule.

He could not say how long Vermaak will still have to wait for the operation.