Springs hospitals improving since court cases

In 2011, there were three court cases against local hospitals, one against the Far East Rand Hospital (FERH) and two against Pholosong Hospital in Tsakane.
According to DA spokesman Jack Bloom, cases of medical negligence should not be happening in Gauteng’s hospitals.
“These cases are very unfortunate and the department needs to implement better measures in order to prevent such things happening.”
Spokesman for the Gauteng Department of Health, Simon Zwane says that the court cases do not reflect the state of services currently being offered at the hospitals.
“The court cases relate to matters that happened a couple of years back.
“The department is assisting the hospitals to recruit staff, improve the infrastructure and availability of equipment. The accident and emergency unit at Pholosong Hospital was renovated in the recent past and there are renovations taking place at FERH,” says Zwane.
According to the FERH CEO, Dr Lekopane Mogaladi, the case against his hospital from 2011, which involved a child, is still awaiting the judgement from the judge and the case is sub judicae.
“As far as the paediatric ward in our hospital is concerned, we have improved quite a lot over the past few years. We have employed more skilled doctors, two full-time consultants and three registries, which are people who have studied further in the matter of child health,” he says.
He admits that the the Casualties ward is still a sore point and still needs a lot of work to get it up to standard, but he says they will not give up in trying to improve it.
“We have had an increase of patients. People are sick and we are trying everything in our power to give them all the care that they need.”
The hospital will soon be opening a paediatric high care unit that aims to improve their services to children and try prevent cases of negligence in the future.
“We have received a substantial donation for the equipment needed in that ward,” says Dr Mogaladi.
“Most of the time, the cause of the medical negligence is due to the problem of staff shortages and medical equipment failure,” says Bloom.
But according to Dr Mogaladi, the Gauteng Health Department gives a lot of cooperation to the hospital.
“They have assisted in the revamp of the lifts and building of additional wards. They have taken notice of our request for more staff and they will be sending staff to us soon.”
Dr Mogaladi says that the challenges of the health industry far outweigh the good things that people are doing, not only at FERH, but all over the country.
“For the hospital and for me personally, it is not about the money, it is about the quality of life of a person. It is a very unfortunate outcome and we try everything in our power to avoid any possible adverse event, but you must understand that the outcome also depends on what happens before the patient comes to us,” says Dr Mogaladi.
He says that a person’s home life and how healthy their lifestyle is as well as what clinics or hospitals they have been to before going to FERH are all factors in having a healthy outcome.
Dr Mogaladi says that they are striving for FERH to become the hospital of choice.
“Not only in Ekurhuleni but in South Africa. We are also the winning hospital for the most baby and mother-friendly hospital in Ekurhuleni, so we are proud of that,” he says.
To keep improving on their services, the hospital has regular meetings with all the staff from the doctors to the cleaning staff and porters.
Dr Magaladi says that the work of all the staff can affect the outcome of the state of the patient.
“If you get delayed by the clerks and the porter is not available to wheel you to the ward, your outcome will be affected. If the cleaning environment is bad, your attitude as a patient will be affected. It is a process, but we will keep working. We have a great team of people here.”
He says that there are disciplinary measures put in place in the case of negligence.
“We do an investigation to see if the person was negligent or if they did do everything they could do and follow the procedures from there,” he says.
At time of going to print, comment from Pholosong hospital had not been received.