VIDEOS: Health MEC condemns shocking footage captured at Wentworth Hospital
The filming and distribution of the viral footage was strongly condemned.
PUBLIC outcries about a defunct Wentworth Hospital have surfaced on social media with calls for the health department to intervene.
In a video, that has since gone viral, a patient’s pleas fall on deaf ears as she screams across the ward for help. She moans about not being able to breathe before the camera pans to reveal an even more dire situation of other patients sleeping on the floor.
Throughout the entire 90 second video, no health official can be seen as the woman’s heart-wrenching screams continue in the background.
Founder of a non-profit organisation that assists the needy and unemployed in the Durban South Basin, Wentworth Angels’ Tracey Williams said they have been inundated with calls regarding the hospital.
“There is no medication, doctors or nurses and nobody assisting patients. Instead, they (the patients) have been told to go home without medication. They are not receiving any nutritional meals. Families cannot enter the hospital to see their loved ones,” she said.
She relayed the story of a woman who found her husband in a morgue after not being informed of his health condition as per the norm under new visitation regulations.
“All we’ve been hearing is that the telephone lines are down. We don’t need to know about the lines being down, we need help for our people. Funeral homes leave with bodies averaging about 14 a day. We need the government to help us provide medication for our people. We’ve got people laying in Wentworth Hospital crying to rather be discharged because they have not received treatment or any help in days. We need help urgently,” she added.
With minimal to no funding, above the feeding scheme that the organisation does, they now provide vitamin packs to people self-isolating at home.
The provincial Department of Health condemned the filming and distribution of the viral footage. It expressed its disapproval in a statement noting the lack of authorisation for the video taken.
“This is indecent and tantamount to the violation of patients’ inalienable right to privacy and dignity. Naturally, we are concerned about the circumstances that led to this situation and are investigating this matter. As a department, we became aware of this video this past weekend and immediately dispatched a high-level delegation of managers from head office to establish the facts, and come up with an immediate resolution of the situation,” the statement read.
The department further advised that it has since established that:
- The patients who were filmed were awaiting their Covid-19 results, also known as Patients Under Investigation (PUIs). · On the day in question, the hospital had received a particularly high number of patients.
- Additionally, 11 doctors were away in isolation after testing positive.
- A further 17 nursing staff were off due to Covid-19. Six nurses were in charge of the Accidents and Emergency Unit, as well as a 28 – bedded short stay ward with very sick patients.
The department said it deployed a delegation from the head office that has since assisted the hospital to ensure that patient flow is managed properly, through the following interventions:
- Making alterations at Wentworth Hospital’s Accidents and Emergency Unit, which has created space for more beds, which will help alleviate congestion.
- Sending recovering patients to Clairwood Hospital, which has ample space, while those who need oxygen are sent to isolation.
“Furthermore, we firmly believe the availability of Covid-19 Rapid Tests will progressively reduce the time spent by patients who are awaiting their results. We have a serious and deadly pandemic on our hands, which is now of our own making. We sincerely appreciate the profoundly good work that is being done by our tireless front line workers, and staff across the board, to help the province square up to this pandemic,” the statement read.
