REFLECTION: Putting hell into health: The people of Nelson Mandela Bay deserve better than this

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Today and in days to come you will read more stories of how state hospitals are collapsing in Nelson Mandela Bay. As a health writer for the past 12 years in this metro, I have investigated the dire situation several times. But this time, I fear, there ...

The Eastern Cape Department of Health will be quick to tell you that the fault is that of the attorneys and the staggering R37-billion owed in medico-legal claims.

It’s likely that this series of stories will spark a witch hunt in the department to find out who is talking to the media about this appalling state of affairs. Then there will be the inevitable spin from the likes of the charming communications manager, Siyanda Manana. The latest mantra is, “We are working very hard to fix things, but you know… the lawyers.”High-profile visits

On the positive side, state hospitals are generally warned of impending visits from politicians and are preceded by a cleaning spree. That might be the only way someone is going to clean up the faeces.What follows is a letter from a doctor who works in the public sector in Nelson Mandela Bay, describing the conditions clinicians face daily.

The list for emergency orthopaedic procedures is around 100 cases long. Planned orthopaedic surgery for hip and knee replacements is more or less a thing of the past. How will local trainee specialists learn how to perform these procedures? Imagine the suffering of patients who have been on the waiting list for years. There is no point to even add further names to a waiting list.

This is despite the fact that suitable candidates had applied during this time. Even after the acting HOD contracted Covid-19; was ventilated in ICU and had to take time off work, no permanent HOD was appointed. This person came straight back to battle through the next Covid wave in the vain hope that the DOH [Department of Health] would take step up and appoint a HOD. Needless to say, it is now 18 months later and there is still no HOD.

 

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