Healthcare Providers Abandon Patients
As the standoff between the Healthcare Unions and Government continues, the healthcare crisis worsens. Lives are literally hanging in the balance as government has called on the private healthcare sector and the military to assist them to save lives.
The Intensive Care Unit at King Edward VIII hospital is closed with padlocks and chains on the front doors and beds lying strewn around in the corridors, empty. There is an eerie silence in the corridors of the abandoned wards.
The crisis in the King Edward VIII hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) continues as more babies are being transferred to private hospitals in and around the Greater Durban area. Doctors have been left to run the unit on their own as even the skeleton staff has been forced to leave their posts by striking union workers. There were two nurses who were at work on the first day of the strike however union workers infiltrated the wards and intimidated the staff to leave against their will, leaving the unit with no nurses and many critically ill babies, barely clinging to life.
Dr KL Naidoo, a specialist doctor at the NICU has been working tirelessly with other doctors for the last 3 days to balance life and death and do his best to help these innocent young children. Hospital management called on the private healthcare sector hospitals and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) – being ER24, and has asked us to assist with the transfer of 22 critically ill babies to various private hospitals in the city. The crisis has now reached a new level as now the private sector hospitals are also all
full. Where do we send these babies now? In a last minute attempt to save a baby’s life, an aero medical helicopter was called in to airlift baby Siyanda Nkala to St Annes Hospital in Pietermaritzburg. This prematurely born infant has underdeveloped lungs and requires constant monitoring and specialist care, or he will die. He is just 24 days old. Another baby is to be airlifted by helicopter to Empangeni Garden Clinic and another is being taken in a specially equipped ER24 ambulance to Parklands Hospital NICU.
Military medics have been called in to assist the doctors who are working under extreme conditions. Soldiers dressed in military uniforms can be seen in all the wards of the hospital, administering medications and monitoring drips. There is also a strong SAPS presence at the
hospital. Doctors who should be caring for the greater health of the patients have to help family members change clothing, bath patients and change bedpans. Relatives are bringing in food for patients, some who have not eaten for days. Patients are being moved to central wards and the staffs from various departments that have come in are all being combined to care for everyone as best they can.
ER24 have noted a dramatic increase in the number of emergency calls being attended to as well as the number of inter-hospital transfers which have taken place. All available resources have been allocated and additional staff called in to assist with the crisis. The problem which we are facing at present is that now the private hospitals are full and paramedics who are attending to serious cases – car accidents, shootings, hijackings etc as well as serious medical calls – heart attacks, strokes, respiratory emergencies etc, have
nowhere to take the patients. The paramedics end up driving around with critical patients on board trying in vain to save their lives while they find a hospital to accommodate them. The government hospitals are turning the patients away because of understaffing from the strike and the private hospitals are full. Where do we go? Last night an armed response guard with a gunshot wound to his neck in Waterfall spent an extra 30 minutes being stabilized in the back of an ambulance whilst waiting for a receiving hospital.
ER24 Dispatch Centre did a bed status check for the Life Healthcare Hospitals and currently only Life: Westville hospital has two general ICU beds and two cardiac ICU beds. All the other hospitals are full; these include Life: Entabeni, Life: Mt Edgecombe, Life: Crompton and Life: Chatsmed Gardens. Nobody has any Neonatal ICU beds left.
The Intensive Care Unit at King Edward VIII hospital is closed with padlocks and chains on the front doors and beds lying strewn around in the corridors, empty. There is an eerie silence in the corridors of the abandoned wards.
The crisis in the King Edward VIII hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) continues as more babies are being transferred to private hospitals in and around the Greater Durban area. Doctors have been left to run the unit on their own as even the skeleton staff has been forced to leave their posts by striking union workers. There were two nurses who were at work on the first day of the strike however union workers infiltrated the wards and intimidated the staff to leave against their will, leaving the unit with no nurses and many critically ill babies, barely clinging to life.
Dr KL Naidoo, a specialist doctor at the NICU has been working tirelessly with other doctors for the last 3 days to balance life and death and do his best to help these innocent young children. Hospital management called on the private healthcare sector hospitals and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) – being ER24, and has asked us to assist with the transfer of 22 critically ill babies to various private hospitals in the city. The crisis has now reached a new level as now the private sector hospitals are also all
full. Where do we send these babies now? In a last minute attempt to save a baby’s life, an aero medical helicopter was called in to airlift baby Siyanda Nkala to St Annes Hospital in Pietermaritzburg. This prematurely born infant has underdeveloped lungs and requires constant monitoring and specialist care, or he will die. He is just 24 days old. Another baby is to be airlifted by helicopter to Empangeni Garden Clinic and another is being taken in a specially equipped ER24 ambulance to Parklands Hospital NICU.Military medics have been called in to assist the doctors who are working under extreme conditions. Soldiers dressed in military uniforms can be seen in all the wards of the hospital, administering medications and monitoring drips. There is also a strong SAPS presence at the
hospital. Doctors who should be caring for the greater health of the patients have to help family members change clothing, bath patients and change bedpans. Relatives are bringing in food for patients, some who have not eaten for days. Patients are being moved to central wards and the staffs from various departments that have come in are all being combined to care for everyone as best they can.ER24 have noted a dramatic increase in the number of emergency calls being attended to as well as the number of inter-hospital transfers which have taken place. All available resources have been allocated and additional staff called in to assist with the crisis. The problem which we are facing at present is that now the private hospitals are full and paramedics who are attending to serious cases – car accidents, shootings, hijackings etc as well as serious medical calls – heart attacks, strokes, respiratory emergencies etc, have
nowhere to take the patients. The paramedics end up driving around with critical patients on board trying in vain to save their lives while they find a hospital to accommodate them. The government hospitals are turning the patients away because of understaffing from the strike and the private hospitals are full. Where do we go? Last night an armed response guard with a gunshot wound to his neck in Waterfall spent an extra 30 minutes being stabilized in the back of an ambulance whilst waiting for a receiving hospital.ER24 Dispatch Centre did a bed status check for the Life Healthcare Hospitals and currently only Life: Westville hospital has two general ICU beds and two cardiac ICU beds. All the other hospitals are full; these include Life: Entabeni, Life: Mt Edgecombe, Life: Crompton and Life: Chatsmed Gardens. Nobody has any Neonatal ICU beds left.
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