South Africa’s Department of Health was “not considering” paying compensation to the families of four deceased children who died at the Cecilia Makiwane hospital in East London recently, as it was “not a deliberate action or a result of negligence”, said Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang this week.
However, in a written reply to Democratic Alliance health spokesperson Diane Kohler-Barnard, she said that interim action — to prevent the power supply to the hospital being interrupted — had been taken.
“The existing uninterrupted power-supply system that is in the main ICU has been connected to Ward 17 ensuring that Ward 17 also has uninterrupted power supply.”
The babies died after the power supply to their incubators went off.
The minister said sustainable action was also being taken to avoid a recurrence of the incident. “As a future preventative measure an uninterrupted power-supply system is ordered for installation in Ward 16 and 17 as an emergency back-up, with [a] duration of four hours’ uninterrupted power.
This, she said, had been functional from June 9.
But Kohler-Barnard said: “How many more babies will have to die unnecessarily before the minister of health starts to hold those responsible accountable for their deaths?
“Aside from being callous and cold-hearted, this decision completely ignores the fact that negligence appears to have been a major factor in relation to these deaths.
“First, the incubators should never have been left so vulnerable to a power failure. Whoever failed to ensure that all hospital equipment was properly protected from such failures needs to be held accountable.
“Second, the Democratic Alliance has been informed that the deaths of the four babies could easily have been prevented had nurses simply wheeled the incubators across to another ward, where the electricity supply was unaffected.
“However, they either did not know they could do this or it did not occur to them to do so. If this is true, this is a major failure on the part of the hospital, and the reasons for it need to be identified.
“Third, the very fact that the hospital has agreed to install an uninterrupted power supply to the ward in question suggests that something was amiss.
“There is absolutely no doubt that, had these deaths occurred in a private hospital, the minister would have been vigorous and loud in her condemnation of the hospital concerned, and would not have hesitated to point a finger at those responsible. But because she is responsible for the public hospital system, she is turning a blind eye to its failings.
“The minister’s refusal to hold anyone responsible for these deaths is part of a pattern, which is making the rehabilitation of the public health sector very difficult.
“When 22 babies died from Klebsiella infection at the Mahatma Gandhi Hospital almost a year ago, the minister was responsible for a report which refused to put the blame on anyone, even though failure to ensure that proper hygiene procedures were followed was clearly a major factor in the deaths.”
Kohler-Barnard said her party stated at the time that “by finding that no one was responsible, the report encourages a climate of non-accountability, which will almost inevitably lead to a rerun of this tragedy in the future”.
“Our prediction has, unfortunately, proven to be true, with the easily avoidable recent deaths at Cecilia Makiwane.” — I-Net Bridge