Patients pay the price in strike
2010-08-31 13:28
Johannesburg - A patient nursing burns squirms and pants in agony while seated in a deserted admissions bay at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital, one of the casualties of the ongoing public servants strike.
Patrice Cawe, with pink flesh - left after his facial skin peeled off and hands wrapped in bandages, says he has been waiting for over five hours just to be attended to.
"What is happening here is very distressing. I am in pain. I am supposed to receive care but there is no one to help me," said Cawe.
The 26-year-old mechanic and his three friends suffered third degree burns when a gas cylinder exploded at his house two weeks ago.
"We received urgent attention during our first visit, but things have gotten worse as the strike progressed," said Cawe while waiting for his turn to be seen by a lone doctor.
A pungent smell of urine sweeps across the room from nearby toilets but it does not seem to bother the patients desperate to be seen by a doctor.
Down the corridor, blood-stained stretchers line the walls as few volunteers and student doctors rush around.
Deserted
The hospital corridors, normally teeming with patients, are deserted with a few sick people being moved around in wheelchairs by family members.
The 1 088-bed facility is one of the few where government has not deployed army medics sent out to major hospitals.
Army medics have been called in to provide essential medical back-up in 58 hospitals across the country.
The hospital is being run on skeleton staff made up of student doctors and nurses from Wits University.
But the volunteers' hands are full manning wards and attending to casualty patients.
"You can't be everywhere all the time, in the last week I have done more than 12-hour shifts daily. It is horrible," said a student nurse who didn't want to be named.
The nationwide pay strike by civil servants, who had running battles with the police, has crippled health services and shut down schools.
At the hospital's main entrance, people entering the premises are quizzed by security guards before being allowed in past an army of strikers clad in red shirts who are picketing outside the gates.
Negligence
Local media reported that three babies have died in Johannesburg hospitals due to negligence caused by the stay away, while critical patients and new born babies have been transferred to private hospitals.
At Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, the country's largest hospital, soldiers and police stand guard outside the building's main entrance.
"Last Friday we had to go back home without getting help. It is terrible, what happened to respect of human life and right to healthcare," said a dejected tuberculosis patient.
"My medication ran out last week. I can't afford to skip treatment, today I am hoping someone will be there to help," said Mangi Khathide.
"I have no money to keep on coming here for nothing," she added before settling in a waiting area where seats are empty
Public hospitals are already buckling under staff shortages and inadequate resources.
The cost of private health facilities, which rank among the best in the world, is out of reach for the majority of the poor and unemployed.