The article “My night of hell at Jo’burg Gen” (May 25) Âcreates the false impression of a generally appalling hospital with uncaring and unprofessional staff. This is not what Johannesburg Hospital stands for. If a patient leaves our hospital feeling the care she or he received was less than satisfactory, then it is our job to remedy the situation and ensure that such problems do not occur again. Our patients are at the centre of everything that we do.
To give effect to this philosophy, we have in place a complaints mechanism. Regrettably, Matthew Krouse chose to use his position of advantage to publish this story without first using this internal mechanism. Nor did he afford us the professional courtesy of responding to the article prior to publication.
I would be the first to acknowledge that our hospital is nowhere near perfect. We recognise this and are working aggressively to address the gaps in service provision and the feeling that there is a lack of a caring ethos.
Whether or not the article is factually correct, it does enormous damage to our brand by trashing our excellent clinical standards, and puts into question the commitment of the more than 3 400 staff who work tirelessly despite many challenges.
A review of the clinical records and interviews with staff directly involved suggests that the patient came into the triage area at 23h10 and was seen immediately by the sister on duty. At 23h15 a file was opened. The patient was seen by a medical officer at 23h25. He was dripped, X-rayed, blood tests done and initial treatment administered before he was admitted to area 260 at 23h55. He was seen by a medical registrar again at 00h15.
We are satisfied that the clinical care provided was consistent with protocols and of an acceptable standard. We cannot establish conclusively the allegations of uncaring attitudes of nursing staff, but will use this incident to continue to train our front-line staff on the need for a caring service. We are meeting with the patient shortly to review his care and wish to invite any patient who is not satisfied with services received to complain to my quality manager or directly to my office at the time of the problem.
The majority of our staff are extremely talented, highly trained, experienced and deeply committed to providing high-quality, caring services to the more than 1,2-million patients that we see in a year.
Sagie Pillay is CEO of Johannesburg Hospital