OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 5.45pm.
ALLEGATIONS of nurses assaulting patients, wrapping them in plastic normally used on corpses in mortuaries, and relatives being forced to wash the patients were reported to the commission of inquiry into hospital care practices on Monday.
The commission, appointed by Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa to investigate problems relating to patient care in the province’s public hospitals, is holding three-day public hearings at Johannesburg’s Coronation hospital.
The commission was appointed following public criticism of hospitals for gross violation of patients’ rights, with the initial focus on the Chris Hani-Baragwanath, Natalspruit, Pretoria Academic, Sebokeng and Tembisa hospitals.
Natalspruit hospital on the East Rand was portrayed as one of the worst, with numerous complaints of nurses assaulting patients, including children and the elderly.
One of the witnesses, Catherine Ngqola of Katlehong on the East Rand, told the commission how she was told to “mind her own business” after complaining about a child who was neglected and left to eat her own excrement.
Ngqola had been visiting her younger sister, a burn victim whose bandages were not changed for weeks. The sister, like other patients in the ward, was never dressed and complained of occasional assaults.
Ngqola said on another occasion she found her mother, admitted after suffering a fit, wrapped in plastic because there was a shortage of linen. On inquiry, she was ignored.
Asked by commissioner Dr Fazel Randera if the plastic was in fact not one of the plastic-like blankets used to warm patients, Ngqola said she found her mother’s body wrapped in the same plastic as the bodies in the morgue. Her mother died hours later.
The commission is scheduled to submit its report to the premier on September 23. The hearings continue.