The executive director of the ministry of health and social services, Ben Nangombe, on Wednesday expressed discontent with the quality of care provided at the Mariental state hospital in the Hardap region.
His remarks were made in response to a video circulated on social media on Tuesday, showing what appears to be a disruption of services at the Mariental District Hospital.
The recording showed an abandoned nursing station, while several patients waited without being attended to by healthcare workers.
Responding through a public statement, Nangombe labelled the incident as unacceptable.
“The incident is at variance with the management of our health facilities and does not comport with our values and approach to the provision of public health service; it’s therefore unacceptable,” the statement reads.
Nangombe stated that this situation is unfortunate and will be properly investigated and if anyone is found to have violated the public service staff regulations or code of conduct, suitable action to prevent a recurrence would be taken.
Nangombe went on to say that he communicated with the regional director to investigate the matter further.
Accordingly, the regional director spoke to the hospital’s senior medical officer who was on duty to find out what caused the incident.
It is alleged that the incident took place at the male ward of the hospital.
“The patients seen in the video were sit-in-patients waiting for their medication and other nursing care during the shift change. Other hospital wards including the female ward, casualty, paediatrics and maternity were not affected with the staff actively attending to patients,” it was reported by the hospital.
The incident reportedly resulted from “miscommunication between the day and night shift teams during the handover process”.
Nangombe concluded that no patients suffered harm in any way as a result of the incident.
In the statement, Nangombe offered the ministry’s unreserved apologies to the patients or clients who were inconvenienced by the incident.
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