A gravely ill 52-year-old patient was allegedly assaulted by a nurse who went on to shout at her, saying she should just die because “she was already dead”.
The woman’s distraught daughter told Sunday World they were shocked to find that she had a wound on her buttocks, which had not been there prior to her admission at Brits Hospital in North West hospital.
In November 2020, a video of patients lying on the floors and being generally mistreated at the hospital went viral, leading to a high-level delegation led
by then provincial MEC Madoda Sambatha launching an investigation.
The investigation identified issues such as low staff morale, bad attitude among employees, space challenges, poor leadership and weak quality assurance processes among the contributing factors to the poor situation at the facility.
Although the family has lodged a complaint against hospital staff following the latest incident, the North West Department of Health has pleaded ignorance.
Kgomotso Sikwe, the daughter of the victim, Betty Sikwe, said they took her mother to the hospital because that is where she receives assistance for her chronic condition. Kgomotso said her mother was using disposable diapers because of her extreme weakness.
“We called an ambulance to transport her to Brits Hospital, where she was admitted on June 17 and was discharged on June 29. My mother did not have a wound on her buttocks when she was admitted, however when we fetched her, she broke down in tears pointing to her behind, saying it is very painful. When we arrived at home, my aunt checked her diaper and noticed a big wound,” Sikwe explained.
She said she took a day off from work to lodge a complaint at the hospital.
“They apologised profusely and promised to bring this matter up with their staff.
“I called them multiple times to voice my concerns and threatened to take the matter further if they couldn’t find the person who had been abusing my
mother,” Sikwe added.
She said when they had to take her mother back to the hospital she started sobbing fearing further abuse.
“They [hospital] gave us medication to dress the wound even though they knew we were not doctors or nurses. “I need a very serious explanation for this, and I want the hospital to pay for the harm they caused my mother. I also want the minister to hear about this.”
In response to the allegations, North West Department of Health spokesperson Tshegofatso Mothibedi appeared to be absolving the hospital staff of blame and made no undertaking the matter would be investigated further.
“We could not conclusively arrive at a determination that the allegation is true; this chiefly because all nurses who were on duty denied the allegation, and this matter was also not
reported and registered as a complaint with the hospital management; not us as the department,” said Mothibedi.
