During the long wait they passionately begged a security
guard and a nurse on duty for assistance after they refused them treatment and
admission while arguing that they did not attend to anyone on weekends.
This tragic incident which would apparently lead some to
lose faith in health practitioners happened a fortnight ago.
Narrating the painful experience through tears, which he
and his wife went through while trying to save their daughter, the child’s
father Misheck Maphosa said no parent should ever have to go through what they
have been through.
He said it was “barbaric”, adding that had his daughter
received assistance on time she would have survived.
“There is absolutely nothing dignified about watching your
child die. No parent should ever have to go through what we have been through,”
he said.
“It was on a Saturday morning and at around 8am, when my
wife took our child who had respiratory problems to Mhlahlandlela Clinic for
medical attention. When she got there the security guard then informed her that
the clinic does not open on weekends.
“My wife then indicated that the banner stated that they
attended to emergency cases around the clock but the guard declined and argued
that they did not attend to anyone on weekends,” recounted a teary Maphosa.
For Maphosa, life after the death of his child is surely
like being on an island, separate from the mainland where the “normal people”
live.
He said that after a while a nurse appeared and indicated
that she could have helped them but she was on leave.
“My wife waited and a nurse appeared and told her that she
was on leave and did not have the keys to the clinic. She told her that the
nurse who was on duty had gone to a workshop,” he said.
Maphosa said his wife waited thinking she would get
assistance and at around 1pm she came back home for lunch and that is when he
accompanied them back to the clinic to find out why the child had not been
attended to.
“When we got there after lunch, we found the nurse on duty
at the clinic but she did not attend to us. She also refused us entry into the
clinic. We tried begging her together with the security guard but they refused
to allow us inside.
“At around 7pm, I sought the help of a police officer who
then talked to the nurse and the clinic was opened at 8pm. The child died
immediately after entering the clinic,” said Maphosa.
In sadness, he said his daughter died at the gate exactly
at 8.05pm.
Silobini Village head Mannford Ndiweni confirmed the sad
incident saying the community was complaining about the nurse in question (name
supplied) and they had since submitted their complaints to her superiors.
“What happened is true and it’s pretty disturbing. We have
received a lot of complaints about the nurse from community members and the
loss of this child shows that this nurse is not performing her duties of saving
the lives of people properly.
“We have since set out our findings in detail, along with
the recommendations we have made in order to ensure that the lessons of this
tragic case which we forwarded to the relevant authorities should never happen
again at the clinic.
“We are currently waiting for their response because this
case needs to be decisively dealt with,” said Ndiweni.
Contacted for comment, Matabeleland South provincial
medical director (PMD) Dr Rudo Chikodzore said she had not received any report
of the tragic event.
Meanwhile, in 2018, the Ministry of Health and Child Care
introduced the client service charter that states that nurses have to attend to
patients within 30 minutes of their arrival as part of improving service
delivery.
The charter also states that those on out-patients are not
supposed to spend more than two hours at the hospital. B Metro
0 comments:
Post a Comment