Hospital breast cancer shocker
On average, 60 000 new patients visit the hospital every year
AS women around the country observed national Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Ngwelezana Hospital celebrated a third month without a functioning mammography machine.
Nearly three months after the machine broke down in July it has emerged the equipment is still non-functional, meaning more than 900 women have so far been forced to reschedule potentially lifesaving breast cancer screenings.
But it is not only the mammogram that is out of order.
Also read: Lifesaving medical machines on the blink
‘To add to this, we have been informed that the only specialist surgeon at the hospital able to perform mastectomies in the case of breast cancer has been put on precautionary suspension,’ said Dr Imran Keeka, the Democratic Alliance’s health spokesman.
Ngwelezana is a regional provincial hospital that serves 19 hospitals throughout the Zululand, King Cetshwayo and uMkhanyakude districts, which according to 2011 census data has a population of about three million people.
On average, 60 000 new patients visit the hospital every year, with an average of 7 700 patients needing treatment every month.
Read the full story in the ZO Monday edition.
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