The Gauteng Department of Health has refuted claims that more hospital resources are needed at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic hospital.
This follows an incident involving a resident from Orange Grove who allegedly had to wait almost a week to be operated on after an accident.
Jack Bloom, the Democratic Alliance Gauteng shadow MEC for Health, explained that the young victim was involved in a hit-and-run, which resulted in her needing an operation on her broken leg.
“The girl was hit by a car and was taken to the hospital where she was placed in the emergency ward for two days before being transferred to the orthopaedic ward in preparation for surgery,” he said.
“She was told day after day not to eat as surgery was going to be done, only to be told that it was not going to happen. Finally, she was operated on [six days later].”
Upon contacting the hospital’s CEO, Gladys Bogoshi, Bloom was informed that the delay was allegedly due to the arrival of more than 50 trauma cases at the hospital in the past week alone with the less serious ones being transferred to the South Rand Hospital.
Bloom stressed the need for an increase in hospital resources and specialist surgeons to cope with the extra patients.
Responding to Bloom’s allegations, the Gauteng Department of Health’s spokesperson, Steve Mabona, explained that the long wait for surgery was due to the high volume of trauma patients received over that period of time and the way they were prioritised.
“Patients are assessed and the type of procedure decided on, then the patient gets booked on the emergency list; the waiting period depends on the volume of patients on the emergency list,” he said.
“[In that instance], open fractures were prioritised and triaging was done according to evidence-based medicine. This patient had a femur fracture and was placed on traction, appropriate analgesia and regular ward rounds were done.”
On Blooms call for an increase in hospital resources and specialist surgeons to cope with the extra patients, Mabona responded by saying that there were normally enough orthopaedic doctors and anaesthetists at the hospital to handle the cases coming in.
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