Referral Causes Deaths
IT’S with sadness that I air my view regarding the unacceptable behaviour of medical staff at Mariental State Hospital. I am referring to a recent incident when a two-month-old baby died when the doctors referred the mother back to the clinic for checkup.
The mother brought the baby to the hospital only to be told by the doctor to go back to the clinic. As concerned she was about her baby the mother asked the doctor how she must take a dying baby to the clinic; upon which the doctor replied that it is the procedure. On her way to the clinic the baby passed away and the mother returned to the hospital and as usual the medical staff started to trip over one other.
Upon my enquiry to several people at the hospital, including some workers, I was informed the doctors insist that patient first go to a clinic before being referred to the hospital. The life of this baby could have been saved if the doctor was more empathetic. People at the hospital say that doctors are in no rush to treat patients and they often go on lunch while patients are pleading for help.
The pensioners are treated the same. Whatever their conditions they must first go to the clinic, which means they go there and sit for almost eight hours before being treated. The other concern is how HIV positive people are receiving treatment at the hospital. There is a specific corner where these people assemble and everybody who comes in sees and knows that if you sit in that corner you are waiting for ARVs. There is no proper counselling done.
Patients come in the morning and sit the whole day since the nurses or doctors are not available. We already have so much stigmatisation against people living with HIV, why can Mariental hospital not identified a private room where these patients can be treated and counselled? These circumstances does not make things easier for these patients. I just want to know from the Ministry of Health why patients should be subjected to this kind of treatment from doctors who came to practice in our towns? Are these foreign doctors really qualified to served our nation?
Dawid Goliath
Mariental