Pietersburg Provincial Hospital makes people sicker – patient’s wife

POLOKWANE – What is supposed to be a place of rest and recuperation for people who are ill and in pain, is more like a torture chamber, according to patients and visitors at the Pietersburg Provincial Hospital.

“Patients are being ignored, their cries for help fall on deaf ears and the doors to their rooms are closed to muffle the sound of their cries for help. Both adults and children are just ignored,” once visitor to the hospital told Review. Another complaint was that children who were patients were beaten when they cried out for some water or just because they feel alone.

Review investigated these complaints over a period of a week and a half and witnessed the following:

1. A little girl was beaten when she cried for her mother, and was ignored by nurses when she asked for water.
2. The only way for patients to get the nurses’ attention was to call for them as there were no buzzers or alarms. The nurses closed the patients’ doors and ignored them.
3. Visitors were allowed access to the hospital wards outside of visiting hours if they brought food and drinks to the security official at the door.
4. Areas were clearly marked where patients or visitors needed to fill out forms to make complaints, but the forms were not available.
5. Hospital personnel were of no help when asked where complaints could be made, and people were told they only wanted to make trouble.
6. Patients wearing incontinence nappies were left to deal with their dirty nappies on their own.
7. Used nappies and dirty linen was left in the hospital passages for days on end.
8. Parts of the building were in poor condition, such as door frames separating from the walls.
9. Patients were refused pain medication.
10. Wound dressings were not regularly cleaned and changed.
11. Some hospital personnel totally disregarded the needs and complaints by patients and visitors to the hospital.
12. Patients waited long periods for operations to be done.
One patient at the hospital, Lawrence Nkomo, told Review that he had been left alone in his room with seriously ill patients and nurses only came by when food was served. He said medication was placed on bedside tables where some patients could not reach it.
Another patient, who did not want to be identified as she was afraid of being mistreated, said she had witnessed on several occasions that patients who were very young or very old were mistreated and even threatened that they would be beaten, while other patients were handled roughly, to the extent that they even sustained injuries. “We do not want our names mentioned as we are left alone with nurses and if they are in a bad mood we will suffer for talking.” she told Review.

Edna Pearson said she had take her husband to the hospital. He lay down on the bed but jumped up in horror as fluids seeped through the bedding from the mattress.

She said she later found out that a man had died on the bed earlier that day and instead of cleaning and drying the mattress, new linen was just put on.

“People end up sicker when they leave the hospital than when they get here in the first place. Proper care is not being taken of patients and this means that people like us who do not have the money for a medical aid are left with the choice to be sick and die at home or take our chances and die here at the hospital as we will not get better,” Pearson said angrily.

Following Review’s investigation, health department spokesperson, Macks Lesufi was requested for comment.

By the time of going to print, he had not given comment, however, he said he would look into the matters raised and give a response at a later stage.