Gauteng hospitals patients wait

The Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital Photo: Facebook

Patients STARVING at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital – suppliers not paid

Doctors are feeding starving patients at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital after the hospital reportedly failed to pay suppliers.

Gauteng hospitals patients wait

The Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital Photo: Facebook

This is no joke. Doctors and nurses are now taking food to starving patients at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital after the hospital allegedly failed to pay suppliers.

NO BREAD FOR THE PAST TWO WEEKS AT THE HOSPITAL

According to DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health Jack Bloom there has been no bread for the past two weeks at the hospital.

This dire situation has forced some doctors and nurses to take food to feed starving patients.

Bloom said donors have also been asked to provide food for the hospital.

ALSO READ: Chris Hani Baragwanath doctors raise funds to assist unpaid interns

“A number of food contracts have expired, so Requests for Quotations are used to fill the gap in a haphazard way that has led to shortages of meat, chicken, and fish despite paying higher prices,” he said.

MEDICAL WASTE IS ALSO BUILDING UP AS CONTRACTOR HAS NOT BEEN PAID

Even more distressing crisis is the build-up of medical waste at the hospital as Buhle Waste has suspended services because they have not been paid, Bloom said.

“It appears that the Gauteng Health Department has run out of money towards the end of its financial year on 31 March.

“Meanwhile, staff and patients at Gauteng’s public hospitals are suffering because of the non-payment of various suppliers.”

He furthermore said more misery is on the horizon because the 2022/23 Gauteng Health Budget announced this week received zero increase from the previous year.

“It is high time that competent and honest people are appointed to run Gauteng’s health services to ensure decent services without wastage and corruption,” Bloom said.

According to a report by GroundUp, Professor Martin Smith echoed the concern raised by Bloom.

ALSO READ: Blaze destroys parts of Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital

JHB RESIDENTS MAKING SANDWICHES FOR PATIENTS IN HOSPITAL

Smith, a clinical head of surgery at Chris Hani Baragwanath, said that biological waste at the hospital was not being disposed of properly because of the failure to pay contractors.

He told the publication that “patients’ tissues, septic dressing and used needles and syringes” were currently stored in containers in a storeroom at the hospital because waste management contractors had withdrawn their services.

Smith said by next week, the hospital will run out of space to store the biological waste.

The Chris Hani Baragwanath Medical Advisory Committee (MAC) said the staff would picket on Thursday. This would also be against the Gauteng Department of Health’s ending the posts of 819 “critically needed” Covid appointees with effect from 31 March.

According to the GroundUp report, the MAC said this would put a strain on an already under-staffed hospital.

They said the increase in patients at the hospital due to Covid had been compounded by the addition of patients from Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital following a fire that broke out there last year.

NO WORD FROM THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT

It seems, residents and local shop owners in Johannesburg have heard the pleas of the starving patients.

Johannesburg residents have started making sandwiches for some patients at the hospital after hearing that they were not getting food.

The Health Department has reportedly not said a word by Thursday in response to all of these serious allegations.