NGWELEZANA Hospital is decaying with every passing day, DA spokesman for Health in KZN Dr Imraan Keeka has said, calling it a ‘pit of hell’.
Keeka issued a statement on Thursday, wherein he cited a ‘senior staff member’ who highlighted a number of serious issues, chief among them the mammogram machine which has been out of order since July last year.
The Zululand Observer in September reported that as a result of the delay in the repair process, at least 600 women had not received potentially life-saving breast cancer screening.
Now, close to six months of the machine being offline, that number could be closer to 2 000.
Keeka also revealed the following:
• The fluoroscopy machine has not been working for almost a year. This means that special investigations – some of which are vitally important in identifying and treating certain cancers – cannot be done
• The hospital’s CT scanner is now only being used for emergency purposes and CT scans are not done for cancer and other diagnoses owing to technical problems
• One of the two radiology consultants resigned in December to go into private practice, leaving this department severely under-resourced and understaffed.
‘The DA’s source has also confirmed that the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) – a vital piece of x-ray equipment – has run out of storage space and older images are being deleted to make place for new ones,’ Keeka’s statement read.
‘As a result, patient information critical for follow-up visits is being lost.’
He said what was particularly alarming is that if certain images are required in court proceedings against the department, there is a strong possibility that they will no longer be available.
‘Add to this the fact that something as basic as air conditioning is not working in most parts of the hospital and you have an unbearable environment for staff and patients alike,’ he said.
At the time of initial reports by the ZO in September last year, the hospital’s CEO, Dr Bright Madlala, said the hospital had submitted a request to the Department of Health and he was waiting for authorisation for repairs to continue.
The hospital’s Lodox machine, a high-tech x-ray machine used for treating severe trauma cases, was in a similar state.
‘Ngwelezana was once an excellent facility, but now it is decaying with every passing day,’ said Keeka.
‘The horrific conditions at this hospital are an indictment against KZN Health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo and show clearly that he could not care less about the plight of KZN’s cancer patients.’
The provincial and district Department of Health communications officials did not respond to queries sent to them last week regarding the status of equipment at Ngwelezana Hospital.
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