Pregnant women seen sleeping on Rahima Moosa hospital floors. Photo: Twitter
A video of pregnant women sleeping on the floor of Rahima Moosa Hospital, shot by the Patriotic Alliance MMC for health Ashley Sauls has netizens outraged.
In the video, Sauls appears to be doing a walkabout in the hospital passage, where heavily pregnant women are sleeping on the floors or sitting slouched on plastic chairs, waiting for assistance.
The video was recorded on 1 April 2022. Heavily pregnant women sometimes allegedly wait up to three days before receiving medical attention.
“How can this be correct?” asks Sauls in the video.
“Mothers, on cold floors, whose in charge? I want to see someone in charge,” Sauls is heard saying in the video.
Sauls, however, came under some fire from Twitter users who pointed out that all hospitals have a maximum capacity, at which point patients should be turned away.
“Maybe let me say this, no nurse or doctor can provide a bed if it is not available. Secondly, every healthcare facility has a maximum number of beds, meaning every healthcare facility is approved to admit X number of patients. Excess pts shud be turned away…by law. We have influx,” tweeted @DonaldQuadratic.
Others were quick to assume it was foreigners who are clogging up the public health system.
Back in 2018, former Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said foreign nationals are burdening the South African health system.
South Africa faces a dire shortage of health workers against an increasing number of patients in the country’s hospitals.
Last month, medical workers downed tools in protest against the Gauteng Department of Health’s (GDoH) decision not to renew temporary nursing posts.
The Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union (YNITU) had said that apart from the 8,000 temporary nurses’ posts terminated, thousands of healthcare workers including nurses and support staff had been on contract for years, without those positions evolving into permanent posts.
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