The paediatric unit in the Eastern Cape’s Dora Nginza Hospital is over-run with rats, and doctors and staff have raised their concerns, saying the rodents are growing in size by the month but nothing has been done to control the infestation.
Spokesperson for the provincial Department of Health Yonela Dekeda said it was thought “the rats were born in the pipes of the old laboratory”, reports Daily Maverick.
“The issue is being attended to as a matter of urgency. There is a fumigation contractor on site to clear the rats. They may have been hatched in the pipes of the old lab system. Poison has been placed outside entrances …The maintenance department is assessing options that include removing the pipe system.”
At the end of 2022, when a Health Portfolio Committee delegation visited the hospital, it remarked on how dirty and unkempt it was.
At the time, concerns were raised over a similar rat infestation at the nearby Livingstone Hospital.
Dora Nginza has 627 beds, with 596 of them in use, and is the specialist centre for maternal and paediatric health in the western part of the province.
The committee said the 40-bed paediatric unit had to sometimes accommodate 70 beds and that overcrowding could lead to infection outbreaks.
It also heard that inadequate fencing allows criminals and livestock to access the hospital, the roof leaks everywhere, and the laundry cannot cope with the volume of dirty linen.
The committee report said: “There is no proper space for laundry services; it is sorted in front of the lifts. There is only one official responsible for laundry, kitchen, security, cleaning, and the garden, due to staff shortages. The mortuary was closed due to staff shortages.
“The infrastructure was in poor condition. It is an occupational health and safety hazard, in general, being very dirty.
“There is a lack of maintenance and cleaning, attributed to the moratorium on the appointment of non-clinical staff. Patient toilets are disgusting.”
The lack of cleanliness was also flagged by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in 2022 after a hospital outbreak of a rare strain of bacterial infection.
“Factors that contribute to the persistence of the organism and ongoing transmission include suboptimal infection prevention and control practice (particularly hand hygiene and contact precautions), inadequate cleaning and disinfection of the environment and medical equipment, understaffing, and overcrowding,” the report read.
The provincial Health Department has said numerous times that increasing demand for neonatal services cannot be met as it has neither the physical nor the human resources necessary. There is severe overcrowding in neonatal units, leading to an increase in mortality from hospital-acquired infections.
Since the visit, a budget of R38m has been approved for infrastructure over the next three years.
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