Residents of Schoemansdal and surrounding areas in Nkomazi, Mpumalanga, have marched to the Shongwe Hospital, complaining about the state of the hospital.
They handed over a memorandum of grievances that include shortages of medication, shortages of ambulances and the general state of the building.
Representatives of the Democratic Alliance and ActionSA in Mpumalanga led the march.
The condition of the hospital is a cause for concern for the locals. They claim that the hospital infrastructure compromises the quality of healthcare. Some community members say they are not comfortable being admitted to the hospital.
“When you come to this hospital, you find it dirty, no staff members, you are not treated properly no medication, no ambulance, you take time to see the doctor,” says one resident.
“When you have to find the file, you are being told your file is missing and you have to go and see the doctor, and the doctor won’t assist you because you don’t have a file. People are scared to come to the hospital because many people are dying here,” another resident adds.
📌Schoemansdal@DA_Mpum activists today marching to Shongwe Hospital in the Nkomanzi Municipality.
The hospital have no ambulances, no medication, patients medical files go missing daily!
Residents are suffering! Enough is enough. pic.twitter.com/AQtdg5rofC
— @DA_Mpum (@DA_Mpum) October 13, 2022
Representatives of ActionSA in Mpumalanga also took part in the march. ActionSA Regional Chairperson in Ehlanzeni, Norman Sibitane, says the hospital is in a poor state.
“The service is very poor, our patients are suffering. There are no good water facilities here. The toilets are very bad, there is no water here. It’s very bad.”
Member of the Democratic Alliance in the Mpumalanga Legislature, Trudy Grove-Morgan, says the party has received many complaints from members of the public about poor service at the hospital.
“What we did as Democratic Alliance, first we did oversight at the hospital to make sure what the people are talking about is real, and when we came here we found that it’s a disaster, the hospital is dilapidated, there are sections where the tiles are renewed but due to cleanliness they look old, there is a problem with management in this hospital.”
The provincial Health Department spokesperson, Dumisani Malamule, says some of the issues raised are not new and are being addressed.
“Some of the issues are not coming in for the first time some are new, as a department, we will sit down and look at all the issued listed, those raised for the second time will check how we went wrong, how best can we address those issues and those coming for the first time will also look at them”
The hospital has been given 14 days to respond to the community’s grievances.
VIDEO | Residents in Nkomazi protest over the poor state of Shongwe Hospital
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