Every week a new creak in the state apparatus reminds us that the system is falling apart. Recently a fresh crop of newborns were the first to learn about the shortage of incubators and cribs at the Mahikeng Provincial Hospital’s neonatal section. As they lay in their makeshift incubators — brown cardboard boxes — North West health department officials were the last to find out when MEC Madoda Sambatha on Thursday night received the photos of the babies in boxes.
The pictures, showing the babies wrapped in blankets and attached to nasogastric tubes, broke hearts and sparked outrage as they circulated on Facebook. On the day the photo was taken, May 20, 56 babies were delivered in the ward, but there were only 16 incubators and 31 cribs.
The nursing manager at the facility failed to report the shortfall of resources while more babies arrived to the dire situation. The manager has been put on precautionary suspension, and the provincial department has apologised for the deprivation of basic instruments of care and nourishment. The health department said the hospital’s management “will activate a redress process with the affected families”.
Just this past week, nurses at Jubilee District Hospital in Hammanskraal were helplessly surrounded by cholera patients they could not attend to because there was no bed space. At Jubilee, authorities have delivered more beds, and in Mahikeng, the department has ordered more incubators and cribs for the ward.
These interventions offer a glimmer of hope, but they are patch-up jobs among cases of crumbling resources as systematic neglect continues unabated around the country. In some of these cases, when every second counts, these interventions arrive too late. It doesn’t help that the people in charge fail to report these crises to the relevant authorities, as in the case of the suspended Mahikeng nursing manager. By the time officials act, lives have been lost, the health of patients has been compromised, and staff morale has eroded.
In the meantime though, questions remain unanswered. How long were these babies and others before them held in those brown boxes? Why did the nursing manager, or other members of the management team at the facility, not report the crisis? Was their silence to hide a much bigger crisis?
These instances of negligence take a toll on nurses and doctors, not to mention the distress of the new mothers.
This is only the beginning of a long and heartbreaking journey for these infants unless we see drastic structural change.
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