Hospitals ban evening visits

A ban on evening visits at some of Gauteng's biggest hospitals has cast doubt on the usefulness of the province's multimillion-rand security contracts.

Despite the provincial department of health spending almost R30-million a year on security at Chris Hani Baragwanath and Charlotte Maxeke hospitals, concerns over crime remain high.

The hospitals introduced revised visiting schedules following a spate of serious crime against staff - including attacks on doctors and nurses.

But patients' families are bearing the brunt of the lack of security, with many having to take time off work to go to the hospitals, or arriving only to discover visiting hours have changed.

On Wednesday night, for example, Eunice Mokgokala slept on a bench outside Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital because she had arrived after visiting hours.

The 42-year-old mother had spent six hours in a taxi travelling from Bloemfontein to see her older sister. She had assumed that visiting hours would be similar to those in most hospitals, and she would be able to see her sister - whom she asked not be identified - between 7 and 8pm.

Her sister, a domestic worker, would then give Mokgokala her employer's address, where she would have spent the night. But the Bloemfontein mother knew no one in Johannesburg, so was forced to sleep on the bench.

Dr Richard Nethononda, a former board member of the South African Medical Association and now chairman of Baragwanath's doctors' forum, said: "What happened to that woman was unfortunate and unfair. People work ... so getting time off is not always possible. We need to be flexible."

Instead of simply banning evening visits, more thought needed to be given to hospital security, Nethononda said.

"The type of security [personnel] we put in place must be adequately trained to assess individual cases," he said.

A spokeswoman for the Charlotte Maxeke Hospital, Lungiswa Mvumvu, said evening visits were cancelled three years ago following a spate of security breaches at the three major hospitals. But arrangements could be made for night visitors, she said.

The security deals awarded to companies for the Chris Hani Baragwanath and Charlotte Maxeke hospitals were among several renewed without going to tender, it emerged from questions in the provincial legislature last month.

A probe by the Special Investigating Unit was pending, said the DA's Gauteng caucus leader, Jack Bloom.

He called for more accountability for the money spent on security, saying: "The biggest problem is that they get really poor value from these companies and should be demanding accountability from these security companies."

The provincial health department spends around R140-million annually on security at 30 hospitals in the province, including:

• R12.5-million at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital - the biggest in South Africa;
• R16.9-million at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital;
• R6.5-million at Helen Joseph; and
• R9.5-million at Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital.

The Gauteng Department of Health had not commented at the time of going to print.

Mmasello Mahwayi, deputy chairwoman of the National Education, Health, and Allied Workers Union, said the union was not aware of the evening visit being cancelled.

"We cannot allow our people to miss visits with their loved ones, because that is an important part of their recuperation. The dangers we face at night could easily be fixed if the security companies we engage are sufficient," she said.

Dimakatso Sebopa, provincial secretary of the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa, said the scrapping of night visits were necessary to ensure the safety of its members. But a more comprehensive policy regulating hospital visits needed to be drawn up, she said.

This week several visitors said the new schedules kept family members from seeing patients.

Sarah Malema, 52, of Pretoria, whose brother was admitted to Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital four weeks ago, said none of her nephews had been able to see their father. The hospital only allows visitors between 2 and 4pm, and his children all work in Pretoria, she said.

Thandi Leboho, 30, from Diepsloot, said the visiting hours made it impossible for her to see her husband regularly during the week. He was admitted to Helen Joseph Hospital a month ago.

The domestic worker said that if she was allowed to leave work early, she had to take three taxis to reach the hospital, and was seldom able to stay for the full two hours.

Helen Joseph spokeswoman Lovey Mohapi said the board and the provincial department had approved the decision to curtail visiting hours - but special arrangements could be made for some families unable to reach the hospital during the day.