The Health Department in Mpumalanga failed to respond on claims made by the Democratic Alliance (DA) that pregnant women and mothers with newly born babies at Rob Ferreira Hospital shared beds and are forced to use dirty toilets or alternative toilets in other wards.
Telephone calls and text messages sent to the department’s spokesperson, Dumisani Malamule, were not responded to at time of going to print.
Jane Sithole, DA leader in Mpumalanga and spokesperson on health said they have since written to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) asking them to investigate inhumane conditions at the maternity ward of Rob Ferreira Hospital.
According to information and pictures gathered by the DA, toilets at the maternity ward of Rob Ferreira, one of the biggest hospitals in Mpumalanga, are not working and patients must bring their own bedsheets and pillows. “How can it be allowed that the toilets in a maternity ward are not working? Mothers must leave their babies to go find a toilet somewhere in the hospital?” Sithole asked.
“Heavily pregnant patients are also forced to walk to casualties to open and collect files while visibly in labour. We want to know why files are not kept at the maternity ward to avoid a situation where these pregnant women could give birth while on the way to casualties to open files,” she asked.
Sithole continued, “This particular hospital received funding for the new maternity ward which was completed around 2014. Currently there is not enough beds in the maternity ward and patients are given plain mattresses with nothing, no linen, no sheets, no pillows, and no blankets. They sleep on the floor.”
She said the maternity ward at Rob Ferreira Hospital is crumbling and taking the joy of giving birth away from parents who should be excited about meeting their newly born babies that they have been waiting anxiously for – for nine months.
On Tuesday this week, the DA tabled a motion at the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature asking that the Health Portfolio Committee to conduct an oversight at Rob Ferreira Hospital, and to come back and report to the House on their recommendations for immediate and long-term solutions to this problem. “The ANC voted against the DA’s Motion,” Sithole said. Most people in social media reacted as they weren’t pleased about how the health department in Mpumalanga is treating women in maternity. Some indicated that government has failed to serve its people.
