POLOKWANE – Patients claim that when they report to the casualty ward at the Pietersburg Provincial Hospital they are sent to Rethabile Clinic for a referral letter before they are assisted at the hospital.
Patients said they were told that this was hospital procedure implemented by the department of health.
Review received several complaints from patients who went to the hospital in severe pain and were turned away, while others said they went to the hospital with referral letters from private doctors, and were also turned away.
They further said it was a very long process to get a letter of referral from Rethabile Clinic.
A patient explained: “You first have to sit in a long queue to get your file. Then you wait in another queue to have your vitals checked and then you move to the next queue to see a doctor. The whole process takes about half a day.
“When you finally get a letter from the doctor, you have to go back to the hospital and wait in another queue before you are examined and given any medication or an indication whether you will get admitted to hospital or be released.”
Patients wanted to know why they had to go through all these procedures, when there was a casualty ward where emergencies were supposed to be dealt with.
“A person can die while waiting for a letter at the clinic. What is the purpose of the casualty ward at the hospital if they cannot help us? I wish the MEC of health could go through the processes we have to go through to get healthcare; maybe then he would improve service delivery,” a patient said.
By the time of going to print, health spokesperson, Macks Lesufi, had not commented on the matter.
