Space issues – not medical negligence – was the reason that pregnant women ended up sleeping on the floor. News24 reports that this was according to acting Edenvale Regional Hospital CEO, Dr Claude Mondzanga who said: "The beds are quite tight. So from time to time, this may explain [why] the patients who are on the chairs, may want to go on the floor. I don’t think there was anything negligent because what we strive to do is at least, see everybody that is coming through the door. We assess them and if needs be, we still admit them and provide them with basic care."
The report says his comments come after an image of three women in labour, sleeping on the floor of the hospital, went viral and prompted Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku to visit the facility. Masuku described the incident as "absolutely unacceptable and deeply regrettable".
The report says the hospital is ideally supposed to be providing services to Alexandra, Edenvale and surrounding suburbs but in reality, it helps patients from as far as Soweto and Tembisa. "In a month we do 450 to 500 deliveries of which 30% are C-sections. If you divide that by 30, it gives you an average of daily activity. This hospital is small, but it is operating in a bigger urban area. The resources are simply just not enough,” Mondzanga added.
The hospital also pointed out that all three patients in the image had normal deliveries and were discharged after six hours.
The report says it was unable to get comment from the person who tweeted the image.
Gauteng Health does not believe that the incident warrants an investigation, but will look at solutions to tackle overcrowding.
[link url="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/watch-edenvale-hospital-incident-is-an-issue-of-space-not-negligence-ceo-20190912"]News24 report[/link]