Health activists are calling on the Gauteng Department of Health to urgently attend to the infrastructure and personnel issues at public health facilities across the province. This after well-known broadcaster Tom London raised the alarm in a recent video posted on social media.
The video, which went viral on social media, shows the poor condition of Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg as well as alleged terrible attitude of doctors. London was admitted with a lung infection and after nine days of treatment, posted the video of what he experienced at the hospital.
“They treat the patients like cockroaches. I haven’t seen one doctor walk up to a patient in our ward and go good morning, how are you, nothing. They treat the patients with disrespect and I have never seen a level of disrespect for human beings like this in my life. Here taps, what you think it works no that tap doesn’t work. Let’s check the ceilings out, they are peeling and flaking and all of this is rusted, this is my bed. The plug doesn’t work it’s blown. I am so angry with you, this is the Helen Joseph circus hospital where doctors experiment with you.”
After spending more than a week at the Helen Joseph hospital, London was so outraged at the deplorable conditions at the facility, that he took to social media, to highlight the problems he had encountered.
The video prompted public outrage, with the public lashing out at the hospital management as well as the Gauteng Department of Health.
Health activist Mark Heywood says the department is to blame, due to them not appointing capable senior management at the hospital to ensure that operations are run smoothly and that the patients receive the care they deserve.
“And the problem is that despite crisis after crisis, scandal after scandal and expose after expose, the same people are running Gauteng Health Department at a senior management level and there has been no attempt to reform and clean out the corruption and put in place competent senior managers and officials. And until you do that, nothing is going to change.”
Meanwhile, the DA’s shadow Minister of Health, Jack Bloom, says these problems have been plaguing the Helen Joseph Hospital for many years, with no sign of improvement at all.
“The issues highlighted by Mr London are unfortunately not new and we have known for some time that the building is in very poor condition and it is scandalous that so many toilets there are still broken. What we really need to see first of all is a permanent CEO, a capable and honest person who can start to fix that hospital and it is disgusting that for so many years the hospital hasn’t had a permanent CEO and the current action CEO is actually the CEO of Rahima Moosa Hospital. So how can you expect a single person to manage two hospitals at the same time?”
The Gauteng Department of Health says they are attending to infrastructure issues at the hospital. Gauteng MEC for Health and Wellness, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, say’s despite London’s criticism of the hospital, he understands that he had received adequate clinical care.
“Having received a briefing from the clinicians on the treatment given to Tom London, the department is satisfied that adequate clinical care was given to manage his condition. In addition, the department is willing to allow an independent process to review the quality of clinical care provided to him while at HJH. So, we need that if it is possible because some of the issues he was raising there, the infrastructure issues that are being attended to as part of the refurbishment of our hospitals.
Source: eNCA
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