Nurses at the Helen Joseph Hospital insist that they’re not deliberately neglecting patients in long queues at the facility, but admit they’re battling to cope with in the overburdened health system.
The Helen Joseph Hospital is one of many facilities in Gauteng that is feeling the impact of the closure of the fire-ravaged Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital.
After the devastating blaze, the Charlotte Maxeke Hospital was only able to assist out-patients and those needing COVID-19 treatment.
The Gauteng Health Department has admitted that patients at Helen Joseph Hospital often need to be transported at night to other facilities due to an acute shortage of beds.
“I don’t think they can say that nurses don’t care because that’s not what I see. We do care, it’s wrong accusations,” a nurse at the Helen Joseph Hospital said.
This nurse has been dealing with an influx of patients at this overburdened facility for years now but said that the closure of the Charlotte Maxeke facility was placing more pressure on staff there.
The nurse spoke to the publication on condition of anonymity and said that they tried their best to give patients the care they needed, but simply did not have enough hands on deck.
“We are always full, that’s why some patients have to wait for a long time before getting admissions. You’ll find that patients should have been admitted, but they wait a long time,” said the nurse.
The Helen Joseph Hospital has come under the microscope recently after Sichelesile Dube died while waiting in a wheelchair for medical care at the facility. Her mother Nqobile found her lifeless body in the queue more than 24 hours later in the same spot.
-EWN
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