Patient care has been compromised recently at Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital, despite the reassurances and denials from Gauteng Health, according to an insider, who warned that if the issues were not resolved, the hospital risked a broader medical collapse.
The Citizen reports the source disputed the department’s version of events regarding recent shortages of dialysis consumables, in which the department’s spokesperson Steve Mabona had said dialysis services had continued without interruption despite supply challenges.
Last week, Mabona said the hospital had experienced low levels of sodium bicarbonate solution three weeks earlier because of delays in the procurement process, but that contingency measures had kept the service running.
“Contrary to reports that the hospital had completely run out of consumables, the facility maintained continuity of care by implementing contingency measures. So no dialysis treatments were missed, no procedures were cancelled or postponed,” he had said at the time.
But the source told The Citizen that in fact, the situation had been serious enough to compromise patient care over an extended period: that the ICU had gone without filters required for continuous renal replacement therapy for two months, and no other facility had been able to lend the hospital supplies because the account with the filter supplier had allegedly been placed on hold.
“The statement that they had borrowed filters for the dialysis machine and ICU is nonsense,” the source said.
Continuous renal replacement therapy is a life-sustaining intervention required by roughly two intensive care patients a week, meaning between eight and 10 patients a month would probably have gone without the treatment during the two-month shortfall.
Major surgeries had also been deliberately postponed because the hospital could not guarantee dialysis support afterwards.
Supply shortages are apparently a recurring feature of working at the hospital rather than an isolated incident, with the source saying that weekly, something runs out of stock, “whether it’s a medication, surgical consumables or anaesthesia …it’s a wide range”.
“Most of us are now just so fatigued that we have to start speaking out. Eventually something’s going to break and then there will be no healthcare.”
Non-payment of suppliers
Much of the disruption appears linked to the failure to pay suppliers on time, eroding relationships with companies that had historically extended the hospital credit.
And although some long-standing suppliers had previously continued deliveries – despite unpaid invoices – out of goodwill, many were no longer willing to do so, according to the source.
The hospital’s vascular surgery service was also affected, with stents and catheters unavailable because of unpaid accounts.
The source said purchase orders submitted by hospital units were often delayed for months at head office level, and orders left unresolved on the system for longer than three months were automatically deleted, requiring the process to begin again.
The Citizen has seen a series of WhatsApp exchanges regarding the supply chain, and these include a follow-up request on the supply of dialysis filters and the claim that a procedure had to be “cancelled for the fourth time” because of the shortage.
The source pointed to the hospital’s history of returning unspent funds.
“Charlotte Maxeke returns money to the Treasury every single year. So they cannot tell us they are broke when they’re returning money to Treasury.”
On Monday, regarding the availability of dialysis consumables, the department said the hospital had received a partial delivery of haemodialysis consumables from its supplier, which had replenished stock levels and allowed dialysis services to continue without interruption.
Mabona said the department was “continuing to engage the supplier to secure consistent future deliveries”.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
DA flags cardiac patient deaths at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital
MEC cracks the whip as suppliers vent frustration over long delayed payments
Gauteng Health rollover funds cut after failure to spend budget