Broken machine causes hospital delays

A PENSIONER, who cannot afford to go the private route and who is suffering severe pain, will have to wait for the CT scan ordered to facilitate the management of her condition.

Port Shepstone Regional Hospital chief executive Bigboy Khawula said her CT scan had not been performed as had been requested by her doctor as the scanning machine was awaiting repairs.

“Our contingency plan for now is to refer all emergency cases requiring CT scans to Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital. Clinically, this case is deemed an elective one and none of the other institutions will expedite this scan,” he said.

According to the patient’s family, the woman had broken her rib and had been treated in the Port Shepstone Regional Hospital casualty department in May. She had been x-rayed, had received an injection for the swelling and had been sent home to heal.

This did not happen and in October she returned to the hospital, complaining of agonising pain. Once again, x-rays were done and she was told to go to the outpatient’s department and to make an appointment to see the orthopaedic surgeon.

However she “kind of gave up because she must go sit there the whole day every time,“ her family explained. Then, when she couldn’t take the pain anymore her husband had driven her to the hospital and they had sat and waited to make an appointment, which had been duly made, family members said.

On the day of the appointment they had returned to the hospital and had sat in the queue. Finally, when they had seen the orthopaedic surgeon, the patient had been referred to another specialist. When she’d seen this doctor she had been sent to have blood tests and a scan, her family said.

However, much to the family’s horror, the patient was told she could not have the required scan as the machine was broken.

According to the hospital, the patient had been seen in October and a mass alongside her vertebrae had been investigated with an x-ray and an ultrasound.

The CT scan had been requested by the attending physicians, but this had not yet been done because of the problem with the machine.

Mr Khawula said the patient’s son and husband had come to the hospital on November 5 to see the file to find out who had last treated the patient.

“They told the doctor the patient was seriously ill. They were advised to bring the patient to hospital immediately,” he said. However the patient had not been brought to hospital, according to Mr Khawula.

He pointed out that the unavailability of the scan was beyond the hospital’s control as the company servicing it was waiting for a component from overseas. Elective cases would be placed on a waiting list and would be attended to once the machine was repaired.

He asked the patient to make herself available in the interim so doctors could optimise her management, including pain therapy.