The management of Lydenburg Hospital ran a mock drill at the hospital last Friday as a way to improve on its health service. This was in order to enable them to establish where the hospital falls short, where services can be improved and what can be done to rectify these faults.

The mock drill was organised with the help of Deon Broekman and Rapid Response, various stakeholders and emergency medical services (EMS) practitioners to test the readiness of the hospital during emergency situations.This exercise is a practice based solely on medical response time and the readiness of a facility during a possible real-time emergency situation.

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A voluntary group of residents was used as patients and an observation was done to see how long it took for them to receive assistance, if they indeed received assistance and how they experienced the service received.

The hospital has in the past been lambasted for its poor service and often criticised by the public and patients it was treating. Residents often vented on social media about the service received and the overall hygiene of the hospital. Dumisani Malamule, spokesperson for the Department of Health, said all the patients who were brought to the hospital were assisted.

“The hospital attended to the fake patients and no one was turned away or left unattended.”
Malamule said the hospital’s ambulance could not be used for the exercise, so the help of stakeholders and other EMS practitioners was called upon.

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“The ambulance was already in use for transferring a patient to Rob Ferreira Hospital on that day, and we would not sacrifice a patient for a drill.”When asked how often it happens that there is no ambulance to assist patients, he said,

“When we call the EMS, they are always available to transfer our patients.”
Malamule said doctors were attending to emergency operations in theatre on Friday when the “patients” arrived. “As soon as a doctor became available, they received the medical treatment required. He also added that if a patient is brought by ambulance to the facility, EMS practitioners will assist them and make sure that they are escorted to the casualty wing of the hospital. If brought by a private vehicle, porters are available to escort them to the casualty entry