The Democratic Alliance (DA) has reported the Northern Cape Department of Health to the Office of the Health Ombudsman, to ensure that a critical lack of lighting at the XDR-TB facility, at the old West End Hospital in Kimberley, is urgently addressed.
The situation at the XDR-TB hospital comes less than a month after the release of the damning findings of the Health Ombudman report on the fatal conditions at the Kimberley mental hospital.
The facility is largely engulfed in darkness, forcing personnel to use their cellphone lights to care for patients at night, as there are no torches provided by the facility.
Most lights in wards and passages of the 40-bed hospital do not work. The staff units, which include their bathroom facilities and lockers, as well as the patio surrounding the hospital, are also left in pitch darkness, on the vast and largely insecure grounds.
The UV-lights in the communal area, and the section where patients receive physio and other treatment, are also affected. These lights are intended to kill airborne TB bacteria and ensure airborne infection control.
The situation poses a serious health and safety risk to staff and patients.
The majority of the staff working at XDR-TB facility are female nurses while many patients are male, convicted criminals, coming from prisons. With security guards only placed at the front of the facility, staff and female patients are fearful for their safety in the darkened hospital.
Risks of staff tripping and patients falling out of bed, particularly when they need to use bathroom facilities at night, are also great. In addition, quality of care is compromised, with nurses expected to administer medication or read patient records in the dark.
It is unacceptable that, while all the lights in the district office’s administrative block on the other side of the premises are burning, it is the patients and health care soldiers who must suffer the inefficiencies of the provincial health care system.
The DA has reported our concerns to the Office of the Health Ombud. We have already seen patients at the mental hospital dying from the cold, due to a lack of electricity. We cannot allow further injury or harm to come to patients and staff due to dismal hospital maintenance and the failure to fix basic lighting issues.