Helen Joseph CEO responds

Northcliff Melville Times story “Hospital Horror” (Week ending 20 September 2013) had readers on both sides voicing their concerns about the quality of care at Helen Joseph Hospital. Dr Raymond Billa who has been CEO since May this year, is adamant that the hospital’s care workers are among the best at government hospitals. “In four months as CEO I have only received three complaints and this is the most glaring,” he told NMT.”The other cases were complaints about staff workers attitudes and not about the care itself. It important to note that Mr Davis did not die here and we don’t yet know what happened in the nineteen days after he left our care to when the complaint was made. What happened in this period is critical.”

When asked about the specific allegations laid by Davis’ family Dr Billa admitted that the hospital did not have a meeting with the family prior to the Northcliff Melville Times’ article. “We have met with the family now and they’ve filled in the gaps with details that were missing in our records. We will cross check and continue with an investigation. Until we have a full report and meet again I should not say anything else out of respect for

the family.”

Dr Billa went on to explain that Helen Joseph has a well-known stoma clinic and so they too are very interested in the severity of Mr Davis’ wounds. Stoma clinics deal with bedsore and other open wound care. “We have daily monitoring of pressure sores,” he said.

“We keep close track of it because this is one of the measures we use to check the effectiveness of our nursing care; we take it very seriously,” he says he receives a stoma report every day.

Hospital spokesperson Lovey Mogapi urges any person with a complaint to visit the help desk at the hospital. “What can really assist you is our help desk. It is very effective and easy to lay a complaint and have your matter attended to.”