Pretoria - Lack of stable leadership owing to the constant appointment of acting CEOs, unstable staff complements, a shortage of beds and dilapidated infrastructure are just some of the problems facing the Mamelodi Day Hospital.
It has been one of the DA’s areas of concern following complaints from patients and more recently the incident in which a new-born baby allegedly fell to his death.
The nurses had reportedly refused to help his mother - a foreigner - who eventually gave birth while standing up.
DA senior officials Siviwe Gwarube and Jack Bloom yesterday tried to get some answers when they conducted an oversight inspection at the hospital.
While there it emerged that the hospital had named Terrance Makudu as the new acting CEO.
Said Bloom: “The problem starts right here: the hospital has had no stable leadership with all its ever-changing acting CEOs. It has been three years with no stable leadership.”
Bloom spoke to a visibly tired manager of the maternity department, Matron Naomi Masemola, who highlighted a number of challenges in the ward including staffing. She said there were not enough nurses and doctors. “The unit only has two midwives instead of the required 12; we only have six delivery beds. As if that’s not enough the maternity ward only has 16 beds which caters for about 800 patients we receive every month,” she said.
“The core of the problem is that the hospital simply cannot cope with the influx of patients,” said Masemola lambasted the Health Department for continually making false promises about tackling the challenges.
“Ministers and MECs have come and gone and we have seen no changes. All they ever do is make promises,” she said.
Masemola also explained that from the 800 patients they received monthly, an estimated 200 were foreigners. “First of all language is a barrier. It often works well when they have a file and you can see why you are working with. But when it’s a new patient who is in labour with previous complications and they can't relate them to you, that’s when the problem starts getting messy,” she said.
Hospital management refused to speak about the baby's death as it was still being investigated.