KNYSNA NEWS - Some patients that have gone for treatment at Knysna Provincial Hospital recently are dissatisfied with the hospital's services.
The main concern of the patients was that there appeared to be too few doctors at the hospital. They said patients waited for a long time before they got attention.
One of the complainants, Bulelani Sibuqashe from Kwanokuthula in Plettenberg Bay, said on 3 March her sister's child was bitten by a snake. An ambulance was called and arrived at about 20:00.
On arrival at the hospital, Sibuqashe said she had to fill in a hospital medical records folder for the child.
'Saw only two doctors on duty'
"It took me two hours for the folder to be done. It was only three of us seeking help with the folders. The folders were only done at around 1am. We arrived at around 8pm and remember that the child was bitten by a snake.
"There were only two doctors on duty that I saw. But we were all attended to by one doctor. I was refused permission to sit next to the child and was asked to go out of the ward. I refused because the child is a minor and I couldn't leave her alone.
"At 3am we were told to leave the ward and we had to wait until morning since we had no transport," said Sibuqashe.
'Very long wait'
Nontobeko Booi, 71, on Wednesday last week, accompanied her husband, who was ill, to the hospital. They were taken to the hospital by ambulance.
"We arrived at the hospital around 4pm and were only attended to at about 5am the following day, and got discharged at around 5am on Thursday," said Booi.
The Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness' communications officer, Nadia Ferreira, disputed the claims made against the hospital, saying that the hospital had enough doctors to provide service to patients.
'Have 24 doctors'
"We can confirm that we have 24 doctors employed who are responsible for servicing the hospital's emergency centre, hospital wards and theatres as well as 13 primary health care facilities between Sedgefield and The Crags.
"Due to the increasing patient population, service demands, and Knysna Hospital's emergency centre being the only facility offering after-hours emergency care to a large drainage area, we are constantly under pressure to ensure that person-centred care is maintained," said Ferreira.
'Triaged as non-emergencies'
She said one of the main contributing factors to people experiencing long waiting times, "is when accessing our after-hours emergency service, where patients who are triaged as non-emergencies are unfortunately having to wait until our staff attend to more emergency and life-threatening cases first".
The department has assured the community that doctors are doing their best to attend to all the patients accessing care at the hospital's emergency centre.
'Teams work tirelessly'
"Despite this, our clinical and management teams work tirelessly to look at opportunities to improve our service offering as well as the patient experience.
"Please continue to make use of the existing structures, to get involved with support and improvement at community level by building partnerships with your local clinic through the existing clinic committees," said Ferreira.
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