Crisis at Joburg hospitals nothing short of a humanitarian disaster: doctors

“It’s not so much about the horror you actually see in the hospital. It is a humanitarian disaster that is happening to people with no voice and no access to care. It is about people dying in their homes.”

The angry words of a high-level clinician at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital echo the sentiments of Prof Daynia Ballot, head of the Wits School of Clinical Medicine, who started a petition calling for the reopening of the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, which was shut after a devastating fire on April 15.

A newborn allegedly arriving dead at casualty, a Covid-19 patient on oxygen left waiting in a chair for three days for an available bed, medical students unable to learn how to perform a straightforward hernia operation, doctors stretched to breaking point — the anecdotal reports are mounting, Ballot said.

The consequences of closing down a government teaching hospital which has 1,088 beds and more than 100 ICU beds are far-reaching, she added.

“The Covid-19 third wave is here and more people need hospital care. Patients lie on stretchers or the floor waiting for beds. Our patients are suffering. Our healthcare workers are overburdened. The provincial healthcare system is in a crisis,” Ballot stated in her appeal for support in calls for the hospital to be reopened immediately — even if it is just partially.

“Many people don’t want to say anything about it. I am employed by the university, so more free to speak,” Ballot said, explaining her decision to draw up the petition calling for the urgent reopening of the hospital, which has attracted close to 25,000 supporters.

I can give you statistics and talk about stretchers between beds and ward occupancy figures that are ridiculous. But the risk to the community is real and the powers that be have no real solutions.

—  Unnamed doctor at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital

Speaking on Talk Radio 702 this week, Gauteng government spokesperson Thabo Masebe said the reopening of the Charlotte Maxeke Oncology Unit had been delayed due to new safety compliance measures and the installation of special fire doors.

“We are working to address all these issues and we are working to get those fire doors and do the final assessment,” Masebe said, admitting that the hospital remained closed indefinitely.

Gauteng accounted for more than two thirds of the 5,500 Covid-19 cases recorded across SA in 24 hours, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases said on Monday.

Like others, Ballot is frustrated with the seemingly muted response of authorities.

“There are complications over what is the responsibility of the department of health, what falls under the department of public works, and then you have fire certificates that fall under the City of Joburg,” she said.

“What gets lost is that patients are being harmed in ways that are difficult to quantify,” she said.

“Under normal circumstances we don’t have enough beds. Now you have all the patients from Charlotte Maxeke shifted on to other hospitals.

“At the last fire inspection Charlotte Maxeke scored 3.5 out of 5, which was considered reasonable. The hospital was running and functioning and did not need to close down. We are not asking for anyone to be placed at risk now — we just need the situation to be declared a state of disaster so people can get the hospital working again,” Ballot said.

Her feelings are shared by the angry doctor at Baragwanath, who asked that his name be withheld as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

“I can give you statistics and talk about stretchers between beds and ward occupancy figures that are ridiculous. But the risk to the community is real and the powers that be have no real solutions. We are given fancy worded documents that mean nothing. I have been in this game for 35 years and I know what can be done in a hurry — and it is a lot more than this,” he said.

“The only solution is to open all the beds available at Charlotte Maxeke with immediate effect. The plans to address the current situation were in place before all this (the hospital closure and third wave) and there has been no progress,” he said.

Patient turnover at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital has increased by between 30% and 50%.

“But it is not about the numbers. What we see here are patients arriving much sicker because of delays in the system. The cases we see are more serious and the severity of the patients’ condition is increased,” said the doctor.

“The premier says he will seek legal advice on declaring a state of disaster, and here on the front-line we wait — only to hear nothing. This is a humanitarian crisis. If it is about fire doors, then put up a tent.”

Medical students are also impacted, having to change from tutorial learning groups of eight to lecture groups of 20. Documents have been locked away and research work has been put on hold. And doctors tracking the progress of outpatients have been unable to continue their work.

“The impact on their (trainee doctors’) competency is distressing.”

The doctor believes authorities must be asked to address the true situation.

“The silent majority who have no voice are out there trying to get their medication, which the clinics just don’t have. I would be so distraught in that situation,” he said.

“The only thing that makes sense is to reopen the hospital now.”

Meanwhile, Prof Salim Abdool Karim, former head of the ministerial advisory committee on Covid-19, told TimesLIVE on Tuesday it will take at least two weeks until the third wave peaks.

“We are about two weeks out and what does that mean? It means you need to clear your hospitals now.

“You need to get all your elective surgeries stopped, you need to get all the patients who don’t need to be in hospital discharged, you need to clear out the wards so that you can allocate more beds and more wards for Covid-19.

“Hospitals are busy all the time and have patients coming in all the time, so when they are in this situation, where they are going into a surge, they need to prepare for that. You can’t do normal hospital work and Covid. That’s not manageable.”