Dilokong accused of offering below par treatment

DRIEKOP

The biggest hospital in the Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality (FTLM), Dilokong District Hospital, in Driekop, has once again been accused of offering shoddy services.
Several patients have complained to this publication about the poor service they have been subjected to at Dilokong in recent weeks. This hospital caters for more than 20 villages in the FTLM.
One of the patients, who shared a Whatsapp voice message , said on Saturday, September 14, she had to wait for more than six hours for an ambulance to come and fetch a patient.

“We called an ambulance at around 15:00 but it only collected the patient at about 22:00,” complained the community member.
This is despite 86 new state-of-the-art ambulances having been handed to the Sekhukhune District Emergency Medical Services on March 8, 2024.

During the handover, the health department had indicated that the new fleet of ambulances demonstrated the commitment to improving healthcare services across the province.
The department said that distribution of the ambulances to EMS stations across the province had significantly brought a major change in the way EMS personnel respond to calls.

According to our source, not only the EMS officials are rendering poor services, but the hospital has shortage of doctors. The source said when she arrived at the Dilokong health facility, there were no doctors.
“The whole night on Saturday, there was no single doctor present. Patients came from car accidents and they were not assisted. We were told that the doctor who was supposed to be on night duty had absconded. Some of the patients had to turn back, as they were not assisted. If the department is not employing enough doctors then they must shut the facility,” said the disappointed patient.
Residents say that more doctors had to be employed at Dilokong. “We cannot have a single doctor working the night shift. If he or she is sick or does not report for work then many lives will be lost.”
The newspaper forwarded queries to the spokesperson of the health department, Neil Shikwambane, asking about the poor services at Dilokong. He had yet to respond at the time of going to press.
In November 2023, during a visit to the facility, the Public Servants Association (PSA) discovered that Dilokong had similar challenges as those of other health institutions pertaining to staff shortages, which impact on service delivery.
“It is a norm that when employees exit the system or get promoted, they are not replaced, forcing remaining employees to extend their services to cover their scope,” said the association in a media statement.

Meanwhile, the MEC of Health in Limpopo  Dieketseng Mashego and  Fetakgomo Tubatse Municipality mayor Eddie Maila visited Dilokong Hospital on September 25, to interact with patients on how they receive treatment at the healthcare facility. The two politicians undertook a tour around the hospital units to see how services are rendered