A tale of woe at Witrand

In April, the Herald received a tip-off about various issues at Witrand Hospital. One of them was constant power outages.

According to the source, who wished to remain anonymous, patients are left in the dark and are bathed in cold water whenever there is load shedding. Moipone Mpolokeng, CEO of the hospital, dismissed these allegations and reassured the media that patient care is always their highest priority. “No patients bathe in cold water,” Mpolokeng said.

“We have three boilers; one has been repaired and provides adequate steam and hot water for the hospital,” Mpolokeng explained.

Recently, more employees have come forward, claiming the CEO’s statements were false and that the power outages were only a part of the problems. The group of anonymous employees reported that patients do not get adequate food, and the hospital’s overall hygiene is poor.

They added that a management group was accommodated in hotels with funds from sponsors due to the lack of power and hot water. The CEO has denied these claims. “We previously had power outage challenges because of electrical damage to the medium voltage (Basbus) responsible for transforming electricity from the municipality to the hospital generators,” Mpolokeng said.

“However, we immediately attended to the matter. We constantly communicated with internal staff, notifying them of the challenges the hospital faced. It included the recent outpatients’ department generator battery chargers, which prevented the generator from automatically kicking in when the power went off,” she added.

As a contingency, Mpolokeng added that the hospital immediately designated maintenance personnel onsite to operate the generator manually. “This happened without fail,” she said. One of the sources involved in preparing the food said patients get almost the same food every day. “The food they get is not even something you would give to your dog,” he said.

“The patients are suffering. They do not have fruit and vegetables, certain medication or weight gain supplements. This has been the case for about four months now.” Mpolokeng noted that there are always challenges in running an efficient institution of this magnitude, which is why the hospital has emergency, disaster and contingency plans to minimise any obstacles.

On the allegations of the food the patients get, Mpolokeng said in terms of food service management, the hospital follows dietetics. When a specific item is not available from the original menu, an alternative item is served. “Our catering service provides nutritious meals prepared to the highest standards and using quality fresh ingredients,” she said.

The CEO denied that the facility had ever experienced a shortage of medication. “The availability of medication is always 90 per cent above the target, and patients get supplements,” she said. According to Mpolokeng, the only time there was a shortage of supplements was towards the end of the financial year, when the hospital did not have two particular supplements because the budget was depleted.

“Supplement orders for this new financial year have been processed,” she said. To clarify the allegations about the state of the kitchen, the CEO said Witrand Hospital’s main kitchen was under renovation. “The hospital is currently using a makeshift kitchen until the province hands over the main kitchen,” she said.

The CEO invited the Herald to investigate the allegations for themselves but postponed the visit. On Monday, 29 May, the CEO and a few other employees met the Herald at the hospital to discuss the allegations. However, the Herald was denied a tour of the facility.

The communications assistant director, Nico Masiu, said this was because the hospital needed to follow protocol before allowing a tour, and they were still awaiting a response from the directors. They did not disclose what protocol had to be observed for the visit.

While awaiting a response from the CEO, The Herald visited the hospital on Tuesday, 16 May, to verify allegations made against the facility. During the visit, in the journalist’s opinion, the kitchen was not adequately cleaned. The ceiling paint was slowly peeling off, easily allowing the pieces to fall into the pots.

There was not an abundance of food in the storage unit. A urine smell permeated one of the wards the Herald investigated. The journalist arrived in the ward just in time for lunch and witnessed the patients’ food being brought in bulk in uncovered warmers.

Each patient awaited their meal dished up in the hallway of the ward. One of the employees said this was why parents had to make appointments before visiting their loved ones. “They go out of their way to make sure patients appear to be well cared for,” she said.

One of the nurses told the Herald about the patients’ daily routine. “They just sit here with nothing to do, and our job is to monitor them,” she said. “As you can see, even in this cold weather, patients are dressed in summer clothes because there are not enough clean clothes to go around for everyone,” another added.

The Herald then went to the laundry. In the room full of washing machines and dryers, only three machines and one dryer were functioning; no irons were working. One of the employees said even their health and safety were at risk.

“The last time anyone serviced these machines was in 2019, and the overall functioning has got so bad that we have to operate what are supposed to be automatic machines manually,” he said. Workers added that although the situation in the hospital was appalling, they were constantly warned not to speak out. “We are afraid because we do not know what will happen to us,” another employee said.

*The hospital did not give feedback regarding the laundry.