'Animals can just roll on hospital garments'

01 October 2014 - 18:49 By Nivashni Nair
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Hlabisa Hospital's management team has been removed following complaints that linen and patient's garments were being manually washed, laid on the grass to dry and given back to patients to use without being ironed.

KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo said the practice was highly unacceptable as it contradicted all the tenets of infection control.

“The people who do this show that they do not care, as even in their own homesteads they use the washing line to dry clothes. It is even worse in the hospital setting that animals can just roll on garments that are used by patients.”

The laundry machines which were bought for the northern KwaZulu-Natal hospital more than nine months ago have not been properly installed.

Dhlomo said someone has to answer for this.

“Nobody has been fired yet but the people who have been occupying senior management positions are to report to the District Office while the investigation is taking place,” he said.

He said a new management team would run the hospital while the probe is conducted.

The hospital serves communities in the Hlabisa and Mtubatuba areas.

Its Facebook page posts photos of zebra on a nearby road and even carries this warning: "Situated around Hluhluwe Game Reserve, beware of elephent when driving the game reserve".

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