Kimberley has one of the best doctor-patient ratios in the country but, a few kilometres away, Warrenton Hospital battles to attract a single doctor.
To listen to Sister Gail Davids is to understand why so many of our nurses hotfoot it out of the public health system. At Warrenton, a normal weekend sounds as if it were a television script.
”Over the weekend, we are overwhelmed,” said Davids. ”It’s stabbings mostly; nothing fancy, like gunshots. And poisoning — people drinking organophosphates that they use on the farms, or youngsters drinking paraffin to try and kill themselves.
”There are lots of teen pregnancies, too. It really is a problem here. Warrenton is a depressing place. There are no social activities, high unemployment and lots of drinking.”
Aids has only added to the misery and the many social crises.
”About 80% of medical admissions are HIV-related. The hospital offers HIV and CD4 tests, but no anti-retrovirals,” said Lily Moncho, who has worked as an HIV/Aids counsellor for more than six years on a R1 000 stipend.
Warrenton Hospital is a study in neglect, with broken toilets, leaking pipes and a chronic shortage of staff.
The Northern Cape hospital’s lone doctor, who was appointed late last year, works weekdays from 8am to 4pm. But when Health-e visited, he had taken two months’ leave and the hospital had to rely on three private doctors, who were on call.
The theatre is closed. There are no blankets or pyjamas for patients. The generator doesn’t work. The washing machine is broken. The sterilising machine is out of order.The connections for the piped oxygen leak badly and the equipment for foetal monitoring is obsolete.
Drains are blocked and containers of stinking water stand under most leaking sinks. Three of the six patients’ toilets do not flush.
The 30-bed hospital, a mere 75km from the province’s capital of Kimberley, limps along on the sweat of nine professional nurses assisted by 14 auxiliary nurses.
The nurses work 12-hour shifts, day and night, and only get every second weekend off.
”At night and on your off-days, you are also on call without pay,” said Sister Suzanna Marais, who runs the maternity and female mediÂÂÂcal wards.
In maternity, Marais is assisted by one nurse. If a maternity patient has to be transferred to Kimberley Hospital, by law she has to be accompanied by a midwife. This means leaving a single nurse behind in the ward.
”The moral of the story is: never get sick. I haven’t been on leave for about two years,” said Marais, who has worked at the hospital for the past 10 years.