KABOKWENI – Patients claimed to have been neglected by health workers at Themba Hospital.

According to one of the patients who has been in critical condition since her admission to the hospital last Sunday, she has allegedly not received proper treatment.

She told the publication that up to now she had not seen a doctor nor received proper care.

“They talk to us as if they are are addressing two-year-olds. I watched patients die because of negligence and its scaring me. I wonder every night who would be the next one, I hear them ask for help the whole night without being attended to.

“Hospitals used to be places where we seek for help and better care, but nowadays it’s like taking a step to your graveyard,” she pointed out.

Close friends who wanted to remain anonymous said, “I don’t sleep well ever since the day she was admitted to the hospital. We left her sleeping on a bench since she couldn’t be seated.

We called later to found out that she had been transferred to ward. It came as a big surprise to us that she was still waiting to be examined by a doctor.

“We usually visit our sister early in the morning to feed and bath her because they don’t even bother to bath patients.”

Meanwhile, there is also an outcry about overcrowding at the hospitals, with some patients sleeping on the floor, benches, wheelchairs and sponge mattresses.

Others confirmed there were not enough beds in the hospital, they had been sleeping on those mattresses ever since they were admitted.

They complained about tiredness, back pain and sleepless nights. There is no privacy, relatives are complaining that they cannot talk to or bath their sick parents, daughters, fathers and sisters in peace.

The health department’s spokesperson, Mr Dumisani Malamule had this to say on the allegations, “Our hospitals have enough beds, we have not received any complaints.

The shortage of doctors is a national problem, which is also affecting our province, but I can assure you that Themba Hospital has enough doctors and I urge patients to report bad behaviour to our health offices.”