Fix Tembisa hospital now: More families give accounts of negligent care

Incorrectly allocated to Covid-19 wards, left in a wheelchair for three days without food: Five families have presented harrowing statements about their experiences at the Tembisa Provincial Tertiary Hospital, citing inadequate care experienced by their loved ones in recent months.

The families gave their accounts in a virtual media briefing after the release of the health ombudsman’s report concerning the care and death of businessman Shonisani Lethole, 34, on Wednesday.

The report highlighted many failures in management, governance and medical care at the hospital, which, the report said, contributed to Lethole’s death on June 29.

He died a lonely death without basic care.

—  Vhahangwele Lethole on her son, Shonisani

A lobby group known as #FixTembisaNow has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa, the minister of health and the premier of Gauteng to suspend the CEO of Tembisa hospital, Dr Lekopane Mogaladi, pending a disciplinary inquiry. They also called for the hospital board to be strengthened and to improve the management and governance of the hospital.

The group also called on the president to ensure all hospital management and staff follow all Covid-19 and critical care protocols, maintain patient record keeping, ensure families can speak to patients and/or receive daily updates from staff.

The Gauteng health department said it would not challenge the health ombudsman’s report and will implement its recommendations, but the hospital intends to contest its findings, after claiming bias.

Lethole’s mother, Vhahangwele Lethole, said on Thursday that what went on at Tembisa hospital left much to be desired and was very disturbing.

“He died a lonely death, without the basic care we should expect at public facilities,” she said.

She listed a range of failures in her son’s care while in hospital, including that he had not been fed for four days after being admitted, that he was negligently placed in a ward for Covid-19 patients before his results were known, and his oxygen levels were not properly monitored leading to deterioration in his health.

“Justice for our family is finally within reach. What remains is fixing the hospital now. It is extremely urgent,” Lethole said.

One of the families that wants answers is that of Nomalanga Mnguni, whose father Clement Bongani Mnguni died in hospital on July 7 last year after being admitted to the hospital two days earlier.

Mnguni said her father had gone to a medical practitioner in Alexandra on July 5 as he was not feeling well. She said the doctor advised that his blood pressure was abnormally high.

Because of the practice’s lack of oxygen, the doctor advised her father be transferred to a nearby hospital.

Mnguni said when she visited the hospital that day, she was surprised to be informed by security guards that her father was in the ward for Covid-19 patients.

“I had not expected this because the doctor that transferred my father never said anything about Covid symptoms.”

Her father died two days later and the family has been struggling to get answers.

Mnguni said after writing to the media, the hospital promised to investigate the circumstances of her father’s death.

“I have not heard back from the hospital since July, and it seems the department of health doesn’t care either.”

Mnguni said she would like to see the hospital staff changed.

“They must get new nurses that actually want to work. The hospital must hold someone accountable for this. In fact, they must compensate my family for the undue distress and heartbreak we have experienced,” Mnguni said.

Nicole Melissa Ncube, 19, said her mother Sevey Ncube died at the hospital in July last year and her death was said to have been caused by Covid-19.

Ncube said her mother informed her she had been sitting in a wheelchair for three days since being admitted to hospital on June 24, without food or water.

They must get new nurses that actually want to work. The hospital must hold someone accountable for this. In fact, they must compensate my family for the undue distress and heartbreak we have experienced.

—  Nomalanga Mnguni

“At first I did not want to believe it, until I went to the hospital with food to give her, and was able to see from a distance the conditions she told me about. People sleeping on floors and three to four people sharing a bed.”

After her death, her body was covered in three plastic wrappings, as this was how they covered patients who died of Covid-19 at the time.

A few weeks after her mother’s burial, the hospital informed her that her mother’s Covid-19 results were negative and the cause of her mother’s death was her chronic disease (HIV).

Ncube said she was aware of her mother’s chronic condition of almost 20 years for which she never missed a day of taking her medication.

Ncube said even if her treatment was starting to fail as the hospital said, she believed that being given wrong medication and being deprived of food, water and a bed to sleep in led to her death.

“All Sevey needed was a doctor to look at her file and note her condition, be given the correct medication and not have her basic rights violated,” Ncube said.