shocking state hospital conditions, south africa

The shocking reality of a government day-hospital in Cape Town

Health department DGThami Mseleku told MPs in parliament last month that South African hospitals led the world “from a clinical point of view”.

Ironically, a visit to the Robbie Nurock Day Hospital -a hospital only a stone’s throw from Parliament showed a facility falling into ruin through shameful neglect.

DA MP Mike Waters, upon visiting the hospital declared:

“While the disintegration of any health facility is a disgrace, the fact that a hospital so close to a centre of power should be in such a state shows exactly how blind the ANC is to the conditions faced by the poor.”

IS THIS THE HEALTH CARE SOUTH AFRICANS DESERVE?

Robbie Nurock Day Hospital – view of weeds, rusted through gutters and cracked walls from

courtyard

Another view of the courtyard, showing rusted pipes, mould on walls

View from inside hospital – crumbling walls

Plastic bags covering patient files to protect them from water dripping through roof

Cracked walls and mould above the toilet wash basins (no soap available)

Hole in the ceiling in main entrance

Inside the toilets – missing toilet seat, cracked tiles, dirty and mouldy

Cardboard boxes to mop up water from leaking roof

Rubbish accumulating in courtyard

Other observations included:• Mould on inside walls and ceilings, large cracks in the walls, and gaping holes in the

ceiling, with water dripping into the patients’ waiting area and onto patients’ files.

• Broken toilets, and a foul stench pervading the toilet area. No soap available at all, despite a notice warning nurses to use soap.

• Piles of rubbish that have clearly been lying around for many weeks, weeds growing everywhere, and gutters completely clogged up with grass and litter.

• A window to the pharmacy opening on to the street with medicines easily reachable from the street. The pharmacy failed its inspection in January but nothing has been done to improve its functioning. No proper mechanism in either the pharmacy or the ARV section to keep medicines at the right temperature.    

• Staff reported they regularly find rats hiding under rubble.

• No confidentiality for HIV/AIDS patients, because dispensing areas for HIV drugs open directly on to the waiting area for all patients.

• Many wooden floor tiles are loose or missing.