The Mariental District Hospital in the Hardap region is reportedly without medical oxygen. The lack of oxygen is said to have been intermittent for the past three to four months.
The Ministry of Health and Social Services says it will be launching an investigation into the reported oxygen shortage.
Walters Kamaya, the spokesperson of the ministry says based on the delivery notes of oxygen, the hospital should not be experiencing any shortages.
“The hospital received 19 cylinders of oxygen on 3 September and another consignment last week Friday.”
He says the hospital experienced a breakdown on the main cylinder supplying oxygen and that perhaps there could be leakages.
Community member Francina Kaoseb (61) says she visited the hospital on Monday with an asthmatic attack and required to be nebulized but was informed that there is no oxygen at the hospital.
Kaoseb says she was referred to the district hospital from Gibeon clinic which also did not have oxygen or high-blood pressure medicine.
“Imagine being referred from the clinic at Gibeon, travelling 60km with my chest pains and difficulty in breathing, only to arrive at the hospital and to be informed by the nurses that there is nothing they can do to help me because the hospital does not have oxygen and that it has been so for the past three to four months,” says Kaoseb.
Kaoseb says she went to a private pharmacy where she was placed on an oxygen mask for 15 minutes.
“We paid N$280. I could have died that day. People are going back to their homes with chest pains, difficult breathing, and tightness in their chests. What if these people die at their homes.”
“It will never be said that they were at the hospital and told there was no oxygen and went home and died. Their death certificate will only say natural causes,” says the distressed patient.
Another Mariental resident Manfred Oxurub says he visited the hospital two weeks ago after difficulties with breathing. “The staff told me there is no oxygen so I went home, hoping that my symptoms would pass with time. The breathing difficulty took longer to subside but what can I do, I’m unemployed and do not have money to go to private doctors,” says Oxurub.
A source within the hospital who requested anonymity confirmed the lack of oxygen saying that the hospital has been facing intermittent shortages for the past three to four months.
The source says sometimes a week would pass or two weeks and then oxygen would be delivered on an emergency basis.
“Critical patients who should be in the care of the hospital were at times transferred by ambulance to Rehoboth hospital and others to Katutura State Hospital.”
The senior medical officer and medical superintendent of the hospital Gabriel Alapoti would not confirm the shortage of oxygen at the hospital outright.
“I can not comment on this issue. But know that we are putting out fires all the time. Because if it’s not the one thing then it’s the next thing and so they come one after the other,” says the SMO.
