A DISAPPOINTED Arlene van Heerden is crying foul after witnessing what she calls the most “unprofessional health care at South Rand Hospital”.
Arlene said her 70-year-old mother, Lorraine van Heerden, suffered a heart attack at her house and an ambulance was called to rush her to hospital, where she received such poor service that she was forced to sign herself out before she was well enough.
“On the morning of Saturday, May 21, my mother suffered what was believed to be a heart attack, but we do not know for sure because she lives alone in her Turffontein home,” said Arlene.
”We phoned an ambulance and the paramedics were excellent and even said my mother could have had a heart attack.
”At noon my mother arrived at the hospital, but she waited for five hours before she could see a doctor, while she was in that horrible state.
“The service at South Rand Hospital is disappointing and something needs to change. First of all my mother was taken from a stretcher and put in a wheelchair. Can you imagine what she went through? She was supposed to be put on a bed and monitored. From there she was taken to some theatre room and put on a bed but by then she was tired and needed to urgently go to the bathroom. Nurses were rude and told me they did not have a catheter and asked me to go look for it. Imagine that! I left and tried to find one but eventually my mother wet herself while and I was told to go and look for a mop. Again I went and looked for something the nurses should be doing, found nothing and had to use my mother’s clothes to clean up,” said a disappointed Arlene.
Arlene informed the COURIER that the doctor who assisted her mother was very nice but the behaviour of the nursing staff was very disappointing. She said she lives in Cape Town and the public hospitals there are clean and the service is professional.
“The floors at South Rand are dirty and I saw nurses putting one infant after another on one bed without even changing the sheets. The hospital management needs to ensure that people are taken seriously and hygiene is valued in that hospital because it is so dirty my brother was even scared to use the filthy toilets,” she added.
The 70-year-old Lorraine is back in her Turffontein home, learning to walk again. She said she signed herself out of the hospital because she had had bad experiences in the hospital previously, and did not wish to spend another day there.
South Rand Hospital apologetic
The hospital’s communications officer, Phafudi Molapo, informed the Southern COURIER that the South Rand Hospital management sends a sincere apology for the experience the patient had in the hospital. However, without identification the hospital management is unable to take any further action but encourages the complainant to assist in finding the culprits.
“The hospital management would like to commend the cooperation from its client and encourages them to work together with the hospital in improving the services of the hospital,” said Molapo.
