A female patient has filed charges with local police alleging sexual harassment by a male nurse at a Pietermaritzburg hospital, and accusing Netcare St Anne’s of having its own interests at heart.
According to a close source, the patient was allegedly sexually abused by a male nurse when she went to the hospital for a cyst removal two weeks ago.
Afterwards, an “anaesthetic agent” was sitting with her in the recovery room, reports The Star.
“As she woke up, she felt someone fiddling with her private parts. When the nurse realised the patient was awake, he tried to take her out of the recovery room and went into a lift with her…but he was still fiddling with her private parts. The lift went up and down about three times.
“When they finally got out of the lift, the victim called out to a female nurse and asked if it were acceptable for someone to touch her private parts to ascertain whether or not she was awake.”
The patient also accused the male nurse of carrying a syringe with him, and said she had been injected with something while she was in the recovery room and inside the lift.
When the patient asked the nurses to search the man’s pockets, they found the injection.
She then contacted her family who called the police and opened a case.
Responding to an inquiry from The Star, the hospital said: “An employee was suspended with immediate effect, and Netcare St Anne’s Hospital management has launched a full investigation into an allegation of sexual misconduct.”
General manager Sharon Singh said in a statement: “We were deeply disturbed …and appalled by these allegations and sincerely apologise to our patient.
“No one should ever feel or be threatened or harassed, particularly in a healthcare setting.”
Singh said the hospital had acted straight away, with management and the treating doctor offering immediate support to the patient and offering trauma counselling. The employee was also suspended.
“Netcare St Anne’s Hospital has a zero tolerance approach to any form of sexual harassment or inappropriate behaviour, and a full internal investigation has been launched,” she added.
The patient said she was still very traumatised.
In an email to St Anne’s, she wrote: “I cannot eat well or eat … I do not think it is right, morally or ethically for any doctor or employee of Netcare St Anne’s to be trying to advise me or tell me what to do to get justice. I am trying to heal, and experiences such as this only set me back and make me realise that the hospital has its best interest at heart and does not care how I feel. How is the doctor even telling me to trust the hospital more than the law enforcement and other forms of the justice system?”
IOL article – ‘Hospital shields sex pest nurse’ (Open access)
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