Strike chaos: Babies starve, patients die

As 53 critically ill babies were left to starve by striking nurses, and as more than 10 adults died at an abandoned Gauteng hospital, private clinics and military medics yesterday came to the rescue of the country's crippled health system.

As the nationwide public servants' strike intensified, public hospitals around the country turned the sick away, discharged patients, and transferred the most critical to private hospitals.

Netcare paramedics worked throughout Wednesday night to transfer 53 premature babies from the Natalspruit Hospital, on Gauteng's East Rand, who had been left to starve for the entire day. Taken to Netcare's Park Lane and Garden City hospitals, the infants' nappies were so wet that their skin was peeling off.

The Times understands that, last night, another team of paramedics was assembled to transfer more critically ill newborns from Soweto's Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital to Roodepoort's private Flora Clinic.

A doctor at Chris Hani-Baragwanath, who asked not to be named, said that there were "no intensive care unit sisters" at the paediatric unit yesterday.

"We have a roster for doctors to do nurses' jobs, so we'll have to start feeding, cleaning bottoms and giving antibiotics.

He said babies who were not critical were discharged and their mothers told to bring them back on Wednesday.

"The problem is that you get new babies . a 900g child will be born tomorrow, and then what? It's a bit of a disaster here," the doctor said.

Yesterday afternoon, 14 people were injured in a taxi accident but Chris Hani-Baragwanath chief executive Johanna More said they would have to be sent to a private hospital if they needed intensive care.

Baragwanath hospital has already received 30 patients from nearby Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital's maternity unit, which had even fewer staff at work.

Gauteng health spokesman Mandla Sidu said hospital managers would decide which patients would be sent to private hospitals.

Two premature babies and more than 10 adults died at Natalspruit Hospital during the first two days of the strike.

The Times saw hearses collecting 10 adult bodies at the hospital. A relative of one patient, who had been caring for her cousin, said "about 16 people" had died since she arrived at the hospital, but this was not confirmed by officials.

A distraught Enock Khoba had to identify his friend at the mortuary.

Khoba's friend died in front of other patients, sitting helplessly surrounded by dirty cutlery, crockery and soiled linen in their filthy ward.

Patient Siphiwe Dlamini said: "The situation has only got worse, but at least today we saw a doctor in the morning and got breakfast."

Outside Johannesburg's Helen Joseph Hospital, police used a water cannon and rubber bullets to disperse striking workers who refused to allow access to ambulances and the sick.

The Times found several staff who had locked themselves in unit manager Nomsa Ntshalintshali's office.

Weeping patient Constance Langa said she had been on the same bed from Wednesday night and had yet to see a doctor.

Protestors ran past her chanting: "Thina senza nje uma sifuna imali" (This is what we will do when we want money).

A distraught-looking woman, whom one nurse identified as the hospital's chief executive, said: "I cannot talk to you. I'm having a very difficult time managing all these patients."

Soldiers were sent to Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital to protect the entrance from striking workers after they stormed in to wards to ensure that they were empty of staff.

SA Military Health Services spokesman Colonel Louis Kirsten said teams of military doctors, nurses and emergency specialists were deployed at Durban's King Edward Hospital and at the Mahatma Gandhi Hospital.

Police were called in to disperse a mob of protestors who blockaded the entrance to the Edendale Hospital, in Pietermaritzburg, with burning tyres.

President Jacob Zuma said: "We respect the rights of workers to strike, but also people who do not want to strike and people who want to go to school must not be intimidated."

But Nehawu general secretary Fikile Majola said Zuma's intervention would "make the situation worse".

"We do not expect the president to enter negotiations," he said.