Following President Ramaphosa’s lockdown upliftment, where the country has been moved to lockdown level 1 on the 29 September 2021, public and private hospitals deal with higher cases reported due to; car accidents, assaults, alcohol-related accidents, etc.
Being the core hospital in Free State, Pelonomi finds itself being overcrowded from time to time, this also happens because small towns in the Free State refer their patients to this hospital, this means that people from as far as Viljoenskroon, Matatiele, Kroonstaad are being referred when their cases require deep medical attention. This then means that at times demand surpasses supply.
Following a complaint posted by a patient on social media, Step Up Sa News went to Pelonomi hospital to investigate the issue, where the department Communication Manager, Mondli Mvambi stated that, Pelonomi is a referral hospital the only thing they can do after a patient has been operated on is down refer them, back to their hometowns, after seeing that they are good to go.
The Department of Health HOD Mr Godfrey Mahlatsi confirmed to Step Up Sa News that, after visiting Pelonomi Hospital, he discovered that there’s backlog of patients who are supposed to undergo theatre and such patients are not in wards, but at the referral section so that when the opportunity for them to go to theatre presents itself they can be taken to theatre for surgical procedures
“What happened was this patient was admitted here since last week and should have been operated over the weekend, a blitz was supposed to happen, and due to many cases that occurred the patient couldn’t be operated, the hospital found itself with more patients than beds.”
Department of Health, Communications Manager furthermore explained that due to covid, they are not able to treat patients as outpatients, as the risk of them being infected with the virus is higher than when they are kept at the hospital
Step Up Sa News, liaised with the two ladies, who have now been moved to the wards. “ ever since moving here, we are not comfortable, because we fear that we might be poisoned as we feel that, the department might see us as snitches, but other than that, since we got here, nurses check up on us regularly and we keep on asking ourselves if this happened because of our post on Facebook or if its standard procedure” one of the ladies said.
“The department prides itself in helping people, we are here as servants and become glad when patients complain because it gives us a chance to self-introspect, the spokesperson claimed, even though he is not happy with how the news came out because this sends out a negative message to the public which might lead to the public being scared of seeking medical help when in need” Mondli Mvambi
Free State active covid cases stand at 2830, while the number was 13588 on 29 September 2021. A drive in the positive direction perhaps for the province when it comes to dealing with the virus.
Hopefully the Department has a plan to ensure that such an issue doesn’t repeat itself in the future.
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