Edenvale Hospital ‘improvements’ putting a bandaid on a dire facility

The Edenvale Hospital maternity ward’s bright pink-purple entrance is as cheerful as it was when we visited last time, except after a young mother’s recent cry for help to The Citizen what lies behind the cheerful paint job doesn’t seem as happy as the technicolour mood suggests.

After being admitted to the hospital for a caesarean section, a young mother said she had been waiting for five days to be attended to and, to deliver her baby.

In a call, she described how, despite asking any staff she could find, nobody was able to tell her when she’d have the opportunity to complete labour.

She said staff had told her there was limited capacity and, just as at casualty, triage was being applied on a measure of severity of need.

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Delayed C-section births, according to Mike van Wyk of Medicare24, could result in a host of complications for an infant. He said a delayed C-section could cause brain injury, oxygen deprivation, sepsis and intracranial bleeding.

“Long term effects can lead to developmental delays, cerebral palsy and seizures,” said Van Wyk.

Simon Lapping, a ward councillor who had previously intervened on behalf of a patient, worked with hospital management to ensure the young mother received treatment.

Within 36 hours of the first call, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

Less than a week after first publishing the story on Edenvale Hospital, The Citizen received several reader’s letters detailing experiences at the facility.

A particularly disturbing mail included images of a reader’s father who passed away lying in wait for an emergency transfer to another facility.

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The pictures shared were disturbing; the narrative even more so. When The Citizen returned to the hospital, a fortnight after initially reporting on the conditions patients face, some of the dilapidation and potential health risks pointed out in the article were patched up.

This as promised by the Gauteng department of health. The golf cart, still parked at the sunny entrance, was still missing a wheel.

The broken no-touch sanitising station is still broken. But this time, there were two pump bottles of hand sanitiser on top of the unit allowing casualty patients some form of Covid prevention.

Inside, there were no patients laid out in the passage. Previously the casualty toilets were absolutely disgusting.

At second visit, the urinal was cleaned, but the basin with dry taps is now taped over and the taps removed completely.

The toilet in the cubicle looked serviceable, it was flushed, but there’s still no toilet paper or toiler paper holder present.

An out of order toilet still bears the message – written on the door with permanent marker.

But it’s open for business.

– news@citizen.co.za