ERIC MATOME KGOMO & NOTHANDO MAKHUBELA
MBOMBELA: The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Mpumalanga have called for an overhaul of state of maternity ward at Rob Ferreira Hospital in Nelspruit, at which the party say conditions are appalling. Rob Ferreira is a provincial hospital which supposed to have a satisfactory wide range of medical services for major health concerns.
According to the party, they have learnt with shock the dire state of the hospital after discovering that pregnant women admitted in the hospital sleep on the floor as a result of shortage of beds.
The party informed that mothers of new born babies have to endure visiting blocked stinky toilets in the ward which is a very testing unhygienic experience.
DA Leader in Mpumalanga, Jane Sithole, said this is not the first time such issue has been reported about the hospital and said the party has written to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), asking them to investigate inhumane conditions at the maternity ward of Rob Ferreira.
“According to information and pictures gathered by the DA, toilets at the maternity ward of Rob Ferreira, one of the biggest hospitals in Mpumalanga, are not working and patients must bring their own bedsheets and pillows. How can it be allowed that the toilets in a maternity ward are not working? Mothers must leave their babies to go find a toilet somewhere in the hospital,” said Sithole. Sithole indicated that it was also revealed that heavily pregnant patients are also forced to walk to casualties to open and collect files while visibly in labour.“The DA wants to know why files are not kept at the maternity ward to avoid a situation where these pregnant women could give birth while on the way to casualties to open files,” she said. According to Sithole, a funding was set aside in 2014 to improve conditions at the maternity ward in the hospital. “Currently there is no enough beds in the maternity ward and patients are given plain mattresses with no linen, no sheets, no pillows, and no blankets. They sleep on the floor,” Sithole said.
She said the crumbling conditions are taking the joy of giving birth away from parents who should be excited about meeting their newly born babies that they have been waiting anxiously for – for nine months. On Tuesday, 16 March 2021, the DA tabled a motion at the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature asking the Health Portfolio Committee to conduct an oversight at Rob Ferreira Hospital, and come back to report to the house on their recommendations for immediate and long-term solutions to this problem. However, the ANC voted against the DA’s motion.
Leave a comment
