Better medical services demanded
A group of EFF supporters marched to the FH Odendaal Hospital in Modimolle on Friday 26 April to hand over a memorandum of complaints to the hospital’s management.
The group dispersed peacefully shortly after the memorandum was handed over. Police were present during the march.
According to the memo, the EFF in the Waterberg region was heeding the calls of the community. Five complaints were listed.
The party insists that the misallocation of files must end.
“We request that our nurses, staff, and medicine distributors be cautious when allocating medicines,” it stated.
Another issue was the prescription of inappropriate medicines.
“Our people fall sick on a daily basis from consuming faulty medicines prescribed wrongly by the staff of the hospital… Our people experience health complications from these mistakes and recklessness by our nurses and health practitioners.”
The party also took issue with the long time it takes ambulances to get to emergencies.
“… lives are lost due to the delays in deploying ambulances and medical response vehicles. Our communities are struggling to get proper health care access and the delays of medical response vehicles are at the center of the problem.”
The memorandum also listed the irregular rescheduling of medical check-ups and patient diagnostics as a problem.
“Our doctors are not respecting our communities and they are not doing their work effectively… we request that our doctors stop rescheduling check-ups and diagnostics unnecessarily.”
The party alleges that the conditions for both nurses working at night and patients waiting in the queue are dangerous.
“Our people wait in long queues until late at night for medical assistance; the lives of nurses, security, and staff are also at risk because of mismanagement. We demand that the management ensures our people receive medical attention rapidly and effectively.”
According to Solly Maphologelo, spokesperson for the FH Odendaal Hospital, the management will respond to the memorandum once they have worked through it.
The MEC for Health in Limpopo, Dr. Phophi Ramathuba, visited the hospital last week as part of the Waterberg Rural Health Matters outreach program. She opened the new 20-bed pediatric ward.
