Appalling conditions at Mecklenburg Hospital
Moroke
Staff members at Mecklenburg Hospital in Moroke outside Burgersfort are calling for an overhaul of the health facility, saying its conditions are appalling.
The employees claim that for many years now, the hospital suffers from most severe lack of ambulances, oxygen and adrenaline on emergency trolleys to tackle life threatening situations, inadequacy in cleanliness of the hospital yard and wards that contributes to poor infections control.
The staff says the supplies are ordered timeously, however, they are not delivered with follow-ups made by workers being ignored by the provincial office.
A staff member, who did not want to be named, told Sekhukhune Times that the conditions of the hospital’s entire environment, including in the wards are shocking.
“Most of the infrastructure including necessary equipment used by doctors and nurses, as well as cleaning material used by general workers is outdated and no longer working properly. Some of this material such as cleaning equipment is no longer used because it has since broken and never replaced. The hospital is flooding with unrepaired broken water pipes. It is a disaster,” she said.
She said the EMS section of the ward is the worst hit with a serious shortage of ambulances with their cries being ignored by unscrupulous senior officials in the province.
“For the past two years, the emergency personnel in the EMS have been suffering the ongoing challenges of both vehicles and staff shortages. They have been operating with only two ambulances, which contributes in a situation where recorded emergency response times plummeting. It is worse now because one of those ambulances is broken,” explained the employee.
The hospital serves Moroke community, including about other fifty villages in the Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality.
The worker lamented that general workers, who were appointed as cleaners just come to report to work and do nothing for the whole day “because they lack equipment to can perform their duties.”
According to the employee, windows and doors have since broken at the critical wards of the hospital such as the neonatal and maternity wards.
“Conditions are pathetic here despite staff members sending a wave of complaints to the department,” she said.
When asked for a comment, Limpopo Department of Health Spokesperson, Neil Shikwambana, said he was on leave and referred the paper to MEC Spokesperson, Thilivhali Muavha, who failed to respond to the publications WhatsApp messages for two days. Muavha had also failed to answer numerous direct calls made by the paper when trying to reach him for a comment.
