Chaos at Limpopo Hospital: Health MEC must account to Parliament
Today, I, together with a delegation of other Democratic Alliance (DA) MPs, visited the Gakgapane hospital in the Letaba Municipality in Limpopo as part of an oversight visit to the area. I am appalled at the conditions at the Gakgapane hospital and will be requesting that the Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Health in Limpopo, Dr Norman Mabasa, appear before the Portfolio Committee to present a turn-around plan for the hospital.
What I saw at the hospital today was completely unacceptable.
The Gakgapane Hospital is in a state of chaos. The worst problems included:
- Lack of equipment: The hospital is plagued with equipment shortages, with several important items being damaged beyond repair. The hospital, for example, had multiple broken beds and a broken X-ray machine. As a result, several patients are forced to lie on the floor.
- Lack of staff and low staff morale: The hospital receives roughly 200 to 300 patients per day, but only has three full-time nurses. Time and resource constraints consequently prevent them from helping all patients in need of care. This places enormous pressure on the medical staff and has eroded morale.
- Low levels of hygiene: The hospital had no disinfectant, no soap, no gloves and no cleaning material. In the maternal ward for example, women were forced to give birth in dirty beds.
- Low medicine inventories: The hospital also lacked important stocks of medicine, with many people not able to fill their prescriptions at the hospital.
- Lack of food: The hospital also did not have any food at all and is not currently feeding patients.
- Basics are missing: Basic necessities, like stationary are nowhere to be found. The doctors have to buy their own stationary when they can. The laundry room is also not functioning, meaning that the hospital needs to transport its dirty laundry to Polokwane (120 km away) to get it washed.
This hospital is under the administration of Limpopo's Provincial Health Department, which means that the MEC for Health in Limpopo, Dr Norman Mabasa, is ultimately responsible for ensuring that this hospital works. I will therefore request that Dr Mabasa comes to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health to explain what he will do to rectify the situation.
A sick country cannot be a successful country. Our health care system must receive intensive care. Dr Mabasa has to explain how his department plans to turn around the situation at Gakgapane hospital.
Statement issued by Patricia Kopane, DA Shadow Minister of Health, May 14 2012
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