Surgical patients in Limpopo complain that they sometimes have to wait for months to be operated on due to backlogs at provincial hospitals.
The number of patients, who require surgery, after they suffered fractures in road crashes during the Easter weekend, have also added to the backlog.
Patients, who were admitted last year in December, after getting injured in either road crashes and other traumatic cases, say surgical operations to repair their bone injuries were not treated as emergencies.
Thirty-eight-year-old Aniki Sikwama was admitted to Louis Trichardt Memorial Hospital after he was involved in a road crash in December.
Sikwama says her left hip bone was severely injured and she could not walk. Sikwama says she remained on a hospital bed for four months before her surgical procedure finally took place after months in pain.
“I am still in hospital, however, I was operated on at the end of April. I was involved in an accident in December and only became operated on recently. I still have my stitches that need to be removed. I am in pain, I still cannot walk by myself, I am still at Louis Trichadt Memorial Hospital,” she says.
Thirty-two-year-old mechanic from Ga-Mamaila Village, Thabo Makgeru, says he was injured after getting attacked by unknown suspects. He was returning to his rented place in Seshego.
His ordeal eventually led to his hospitalisation at Seshego in February. Makgeru says his bones were severely fractured and like Sikwama, he lost his mobility. He was transferred for a surgical procedure at the Polokwane Provincial Hospital.
Makgeru says he was discharged yesterday and was told that he will not be booked for an operation.
“The doctor just came in the morning and said ‘no, you are discharged, your bones will heal bit by bit, you can go home and mobilise with crutches.’ They discharged me but I did not get medication. The operation, they did not do the operation when I am walking my bones are clicking I can hear the clicking sound in my left side and leg,” he explains.
Government’s response
Health MEC, Dr. Phopi Ramathuba, says the backlogs are due to elective surgeries postponed during last year’s hard lockdown.
“There has been backlog created because of Easter trauma patients in our hospitals with a number of fractures, you know that during December festive season we do not do elective procedures, we wait for January and clear all the surgical backlogs. We even go on a Letsema this year, however, in January we could not go on the Letsema drive because were busy in the middle of the second wave of the COVID- 19,” she explains.
Ramathuba adds that they expect to reduce the current backlogs by re-launching a campaign known as “Letjema” that focuses on bringing orthopaedic specialists to treat those in need of surgery.
