Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has read the riot act to health management that they will be held accountable for the shoddy job such as that led to the recent death of a patient at a hospital in KwaZulu-Natal who was kept a in a “shabby shack tent.” IoL reports that Mkhize was concluding his three-day visit to the province to inspect health facilities’ state of readiness for the expected surge of COVID-19 infections.
The report says on his last leg he visited Northdale Hospital in Pietermaritzburg where Sibusiso Khumalo, 67, died late last week while he was in a makeshift ward, which was erected in a parking lot and whose condition was apparently substandard. It is believed that he had been encountering breathing problems.
“The management across the country needs to know that they are going to be accountable, (and) they are going to take responsibility for the good and the bad that they do,” said Mkhize.
According to the report, it was alleged that when Khumalo complained about feeling cold while he and other patients were in the tent, which was donated to the facility, nurses refused to help him, and when his family members brought him a blanket they found him dead. His death, which had made media headlines, had led to the suspension of medical and nursing managers pending an investigation while the hospital’s acting CEO was deployed to her previous post of maternal health specialist.
Mkhize said the investigation would look at the standard of managing the hospital. He said investigators would also interact with district and provincial officers to get to the bottom of the issue.
A preliminary report into the death of the patient has found that he died in a ward, reports News24. The scope of the investigation, being conducted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal, into the embattled hospital has also been extended to "exhaustively deal with other pertinent challenges" identified at the hospital.
KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu confirmed that this report was expected within three weeks.
The hospital's medical and nursing managers have already been suspended while its acting CEO has been deployed to her previous post of maternal health specialist.
During the visit, Mkhize said he was shocked to discover how its patients who should have been in fever clinics were accommodated during the COVID-19 outbreak, reports The Times. “About three months ago I gave a directive for all hospitals to create fever clinics wherein people must be triaged,” said Mkhize. “We must separate people as they walk in, make sure that if you've got symptoms of COVID-19, we can then test you and separate you from those that have no symptoms. It must be done properly. That was the directive.
“Then comes Northdale with some shabby shack or tent out there and we hear people were being treated in them and it's shocking.”
Mkhize revealed that the makeshift ward was a gift to the hospital. “I have no problem with a donation but as management you need to know what is the quality that is expected to treat our people,” he told Northdale bosses.
The medical and nursing managers were suspended after radio personality Hlengiwe Khumalo shared a video of a parking lot that had been converted into a ward where her father died from hypoxia (lack of oxygen).
The report says a team from the University of KwaZulu-Natal has been tasked with investigating the matter and was expected to produce a report with recommendations by Friday. KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu said the report would be made public.
The makeshift facility had been standing for more than a month, Simelane-Zulu was quoted in a News24 report as saying. "At face value, it looks like this has been happening for a couple of months and that is why in our disciplinary processes and our engagement, the acting CEO is not immune because she has only been off work for a couple of weeks now."
She said that, while the hospital's acting CEO was off sick for two weeks, the facility had been put up before she was ill. "When all this happened, she was leading the facility. When we said we are taking actions, we are taking actions toward management who took a decision to (erect) a facility like that." Simelane-Zulu said the buck would not stop with her and could also go as far up as provincial officials.
Simelane-Zulu said that, while flu clinics were called for by Mkhize three months ago, the facility was meant to be inside the hospital and never an outside structure. She said the only outside structure allowed would be a screening facility that would also have to be in a sealed-off and secure tent.
[link url="https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/mkhize-reprimands-northdale-hospital-management-after-patient-died-in-shabby-shack-tent-3be7ac50-b835-40bc-a85c-3d0a4af5d26a"]Full IoL report[/link]
[link url="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-08-08-shabby-and-shocking-mkhizes-verdict-on-hospital-where-pensioner-died-in-car-park/"]Full report in The Times[/link]
[link url="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/makeshift-parking-lot-flu-clinic-at-kwazulu-natal-hospital-there-for-more-than-a-month-mec-20200807"]Full News24 report[/link]
[link url="http://www.kznhealth.gov.za/mediarelease/2020/kzn-health-mec-announces-two-suspensions-redeployment-of-acting-ceo-at-northdale-hospital-05082020.htm"]KZN Health material[/link]