The FF Plus intervened at the Steve Biko Hospital in Pretoria after a patient called out to the FF Plus out of sheer desperation.
This past Wednesday during a session of the parliamentary portfolio committee for Health, ironically enough, the FF Plus learnt about the patient's shocking situation.
The patient (whose name is kept confidential) had a broken arm and the Hospital left him without food or water for ten days because he was supposed to have an operation to reattach the arm correctly but day after day, the procedure was postponed as the operating theatre was too full. Meanwhile, the arm started to turn black and the person was in immense pain.
To make matters worse, he had previously been admitted to the Ga-Rankuwa Hospital for two days and he received no treatment there either. He was admitted to the Steve Biko Hospital on the 2nd of October.
The FF Plus was notified of his situation at about 09:15 and immediately informed the chairperson of the portfolio committee, the Gauteng MEC for Health as well as the Gauteng department of Health about the incident.
At 10:39, the patient had already been taken to theatre and the operation was done. After the operation, he phoned the FF Plus to thank the party for stepping in. The FF Plus is happy to have been able to help and wishes the person a speedy recovery.
This single incident once again puts the spotlight on public health care in South Africa, which is a countrywide crisis, and it underscores the FF Plus's standpoint that health care will only go from bad to worse with a programme like the National Health Insurance (NHI), which the government wants to force on all South Africans.
The FF Plus will continue to fight against irregularities and incompetence on behalf of the public and will not hesitate to make incidents like these known.
Maladministration and mismanagement in public health care must be eradicated completely. In the meantime, the FF Plus is being kept up to date with the patient's progress and further treatment and will pay a visit to him soon.
The FF Plus requested an investigation into the incident.
Contact details: 060 556 4347 / (012) 772 4410 / (021) 403 3036
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