Queue disaster continues at Steve Biko Hospital

28 October 2014

Long queues and waiting times continue at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria two months after a new electronic patient flow system was introduced.

This was my observation when I visited the hospital yesterday.

Hospital management said previously that teething problems would be sorted out with the new system, but most patients said that it had worsened the situation.

Patients queue outside the hospital from as early as 02h00, and only come inside when the doors are opened at 06h30.

They then get a ticket number, but can wait three hours to get their patient files.

If they need to see a doctor it's another long wait, followed by some hours to get medicine at the pharmacy.

The pharmacy area was uncomfortably overcrowded when I visited at 14h00.

Here are some stories of patients (real names withheld):

Tsepo arrived at 04h00, then saw a doctor, and was still waiting for his medicine when I left at 14h30;

Pieter takes a day off work every month to collect his heart medicine. He arrived at 08h00, got his file at 11h30, and had not received his medicine at 14h30;

Gladness came at 07h00 with her two-year-old brother to get his eczema medicine, and was still there at 14h30.

I tried to speak to hospital management but they said that they could not speak to me as Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu had not given me permission to visit.

This is an outrageous restriction by MEC Mahlangu on my right of oversight, but I will continue with the DA's campaign to cut long hospital queues.

The misery of long waiting times at Steve Biko Hospital is unacceptable. Sick and elderly people should never be treated so badly.

The new patient management system should be improved rapidly or abandoned in favour of a better system.

Statement issued by Jack Bloom MPL, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health, October 28 2014

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