Patients are frustrated and there is great concern about lives put at risk due to urgent operations not being done at the Universitas Academic Hospital.
One patient who urgently requires surgery was admitted from 15 to 18 December after a heart attack. Doctors sent him home after Christmas to wait for a surgery date. The follow-up date was given as 27 January.
“On the 27th the attending doctor could not believe that I had still not been contacted with a surgery date. The very next day I received confirmation that I must be at the hospital on 2 February, with the operation scheduled for 3 February,” the patient says.
“On the morning of the third, at 06:00, I was taken to theatre, but by 10:30 staff told me that the chillers were not functioning and that the operation was temporarily cancelled.”
On 4 February the operation was also cancelled, apparently for the same reason.
“One the morning of 5 February I was advised by my attending surgeon to go home until further notice. He explained they could not operate, as the risk of infection was really high if the room could not be cooled down.”
Mondli Mvambi, spokesperson for the Free State Departement of Health, confirmed that the situation at the hospital was not ideal for both patients and staff. He said technicians were attending to the cooling tower.
“Four chillers out of six are running and three of the four pumps are running, which is phenomenal progress,” said Dr Balekile Mzangwa, Universitas chief executive officer.
