#HospitalHealthCheck: Tembisa Hospital struggles with overcrowding and staff shortages
29 May 2018
The Tembisa Hospital is trying to come up with innovative ways to cope with massive overcrowding and huge staff shortages.
This is my major impression following my oversight inspection today to the hospital with DA MPL Dr Neil Campbell, local DA Constituency Head Graham Gersbach MPL and DA Ekurhuleni Councillor Eulbri Kubayi.
The hospital serves a population of 2.5 million and delivers 16 000 babies a year, the second highest number in Gauteng.
The large increase in patient numbers often results in patients having to sleep on stretchers or mattresses on the floor, particularly in casualty and in the medical wards.
There are 840 beds, but there can be close to 1000 admitted patients at busy periods.
Hospital CEO Dr Lekopane Mogaladi said that there are usually 200 medical patients a day, but only 176 beds in the medical wards.
The 30-bed psychiatric ward is also usually full, so psychiatric patients have to be placed in other wards which can cause security and other problems.
The hospital currently has 2118 staff, but the Gauteng Health Department has only given permission to fill 4 out of 49 posts.
We were told, however, that according to international norms and standards the hospital should have at least 628 more nurses to provide a proper service to patients. They are running with only about 40% of the nurses that are really needed.
The dire shortage of staff puts extreme strain on them, and increases the risk of medical negligence which leads to large payouts that strain the health budget further.
I was encouraged by Dr Mogaladi’s plan with a private partner to open a prefabricated medical ward with 24 beds in August this year, bypassing the dysfunctional Department of Infrastructure Development which usually takes years to build anything.
He is also trying innovative ways like block bookings to bring down the waiting periods for patients.
A new CT scanner is due to arrive in December this year to replace a machine that is slow and often breaks down.
Tembisa Hospital would benefit if the Gauteng Health Department expanded the Edenvale Hospital and built a new hospital in Kempton Park, which would give patients alternative hospitals to visit in a large catchment area.
I am concerned that psychiatric patients are kept at this hospital for long periods of time as there are not enough beds for them at Weskoppies Mental Hospital - they should only be at Tembisa Hospital for 72 hour observation before they are discharged or sent to a longer-term facility.
I hope that the Gauteng Health Department reconsiders its staff freeze and assists this hospital to be properly staffed and equipped to serve a large and growing populations.
Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, 29 May 2018
