KWAZULU-NATAL Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo found patients sleeping on the floor when he and his team made a surprise visit to the Church of Scotland hospital in Tugela Ferry yesterday.

The MEC ordered management of the hospital to find a decent place to house patients who were sleeping on the benches and on the floor, awaiting overnight for transport to take them to hospitals in Pietermaritzburg the next day.

Among them was a cancer patient and more than a dozen mothers and their children.
The MEC was upset because hospital management ought to have a better system in place after the matter came under the spotlight and was resolved two years ago.

“I am surprised and angry that a matter we resolved long ago has not been effected at this hospital. These patients have left their homes and come here so that they can be reviewed. District hospitals provide transport for them to tertiary hospitals. Today, I saw a patient, Mrs Mamizi Mkhize, who has advanced cancer.

“She is due to go for further treatment at Greys hospital. I found her kneeling on the bench as she says she cannot put down her pelvis on the concrete floor. It was obvious if I had not arrived there, she was going to remain kneeling for the whole night. After the visit to Greys hospital, if she comes back late at Msinga, she would sleep on the benches again.

“I ordered the hospital to find her a decent place to sleep together with more than a dozen of mothers taking their children to hospitals in Pietermaritzburg. If hospital management had been exposed to Palliative care maybe they would have been sensitive to this need of our population,” the MEC said.