Scarred by Kalafong experience
“Three days after the operation, I tried to remove my bandages as they were very dirty and looked like they might be causing an infection."
A Centurion woman says she was shocked by the conditions she experienced at Kalafong hospital, where she was admitted for an operation.
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Du Plessis said she was admitted to ward 14 in April last year for an operation.
She said she was shocked by the unsanitary conditions and the uncaring staff she found there.
“The woman took my forms, without greeting me at all. She entered something onto the system, took my admission fee, gave me change, told me to go to ward 15 and got up and left.”
“I had no idea where to go.”
Du Plessis said when she eventually went to fetch her hospital gown “in a dirty little room full of old dirty gowns”, she asked around and was told she needed to go to ward 14, and not 15 as the woman had told her.
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“After already having queued several times, I got to the ward at about 10:30 and had to sit in another queue.”
“Some of the women were lying there half-naked, some had blood stains on their clothes.”
She said the reception desk was very untidy and the floors were dirty.
“There was blood on the floor next to where I was sitting as well as a box of sanitary pads with blood stains on it.”
“The place smelt of sweat and body fluids.”
Du Plessis said there were only two baths for 30-plus female patients.
“The bathroom stank, it was dirty, there was water and blood everywhere and women bathing in little plastic buckets all over the place.”
She said the baths were full of bloody water from the previous patients.”
“I refused to bath… the nurse tried to force me to and I told her I would not go into a dirty bath that still had someone else’s water and fluids in.”
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Du Plessis said around 21:00, after almost a day at the hospital, the nurses attended to them for the first time.
“I was told I would be going into theatre for surgery at 06:00 the next morning so I needed all the rest I could get.”
“The lights were still on and very bright. The nurses were loudly laughing and making jokes, not bothered about the fact that some of us needed sleep.”
She said when the lights were finally switched off she was surprised to see all all the nurses sleeping in one of the offices.
“One of the nurses packed chairs behind the reception desk and was lying on them like it was a bed, and fell asleep.”
Du Plessis had the operation, and had some praise for the theatre: both its condition, and the helpful attitude of the staff.
“Three days after the operation, I tried to remove my bandages as they were very dirty and looked like they might be causing an infection.”
“I noticed how badly the stitches were done. They were skew and some parts of the stitches had gotten stuck onto my skin, slicing through my flesh.”
She said she could see the inside of her cut through the stitches.
“They [hospital staff] were unable to fully resolve my problems and told me I had to go to Steve Biko for the specialist there to operate again. The catch is, there is a 24-month waiting period.”
“I contemplated for a long time whether I should write this but I decided that if we don’t speak up, we will be left for dead.”
No response was received from the Gauteng department of health at the time of going to press.
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