NELSON MANDELA BAY HEALTHCARE SYSTEM

The public healthcare system in the Nelson Mandela Bay hasn’t changed. Even after The Herald has reported on how the Bay’s healthcare system is facing an unprecedented collapse, earlier this month. They haven’t shown any improvement.

Dora Nginza Hospital, The waiting room mistreatment

Dora Nginza is one of the hospitals in the Bay that are ignorant. The “Batho Pele” concept which means People First, to them means nothing as they treat people and patients like animals. They don’t ask people nicely to move to another room to wait for their sick loved ones they literally chase them away. A woman, who came with her seriously ill brother, all the way from Alexandria, was told to leave one of the benches in the waiting area to go to stay in another area. She left the room crying saying that what they are doing is unfair because her brother is ill, she just wanted to be there with him. The brother was then given a drip and was told he can only be treated when the drip was all in his body, which took about an hour. Dora Nginza’s waiting room is a nightmare as people wait for hours in the casualty ward. A man who didn’t want to give out his name said” I’ve been here since 9am, now it’s 12o’clock and my name hasn’t been called”. A 22 year old Bianca Jack, mother of Ashley-Ann (2 months old) from Kleinskool  was told to keep quiet when she was crying because her infant was coughing non-stop and throwing up just about everything. She just left and went to cry outside, seeming that was the only thing she could do.  Talking to her she said” I just want my baby to get better, I really don’t know what is wrong, she’s been like this for the past three days, and when I came here yesterday the nurses told me there are no doctors. The nurses and the doctors didn’t want to comment on the matter.

TRANSPORT ISSUES

Another problem in Dora Nginza, is the transportation of patients, they only have one ambulance a day, meaning that they will not be able to go to other sick people. When an ambulance arrived at the casualty ward, with an 86 year old man, who had stroke the night before, they called for an ambulance and they were told to wait until the morning, which they did. They never thought morning meant 1 in the afternoon. The ambulance driver only said “they didn’t give me the right directions”.