Broken lifts raise frustration to new heights
When we went to investigate, we found that indeed the lift was not working and there was no sign of any maintenance work taking place.
MBOMBELA – It seems as if Rob Ferreira Hospital is struggling to avoid negative publicity.
Of late, the facility has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons, from decomposing bodies lying in corridors to patients suffering due to linen shortages.
This time, patients are complaining about lifts not working and having to use the stairs to go to different wards in their feeble state.
Last week Mpumalanga News was swamped by calls from unhappy patients who claimed they were not provided with the necessary assistance to get to the fourth floor since the lift was out of order.
When we went to investigate, we found that indeed the lift was not working and there was no sign of any maintenance work taking place.
We managed to talk to a number of patients who were all using the stairs.
“My sister who was in much pain after she was attended to by a doctor at casualty, was referred to the fourth floor for further consultation.
I had to help her climb the stairs in her frail condition. What if I was not there, who would have helped her climb the stairs?” asked an irate Ms Marcia Mkhabela.
Another patient, who was too angry to even tell us his name, said he had to climb the stairs even though he felt dizzy.
“I told the nurse that the lift was not working, but she did not even bother to arrange for a porter to escort me there even though she saw that I was too weak. I had to stop and sit down several times before I got to the floor,” he said.
We asked the health department if they were aware of the situation and the spokesperson, Mr Dumisani Malamule assured us that there was no crisis.
“What is happening is that some of the lifts are in the service and maintenance process, but as I speak to you, I have just instructed the CEO of the hospital to check what was going on and she gave me her word that although one lift was not working, the others were in use so that the patients did not get stranded,” Malamule responded.
He added that he was certain that the maintenance was not affecting the patients in any negative way.
