GLADYS Bogoshi, the chief executive officer of Helen Joseph Hospital, has been suspended after a patient died in the queue while awaiting her turn to be treated.

Bogoshi was suspended yesterday pending an investigation into the incident.

The deceased, Thabile Mlotshwe, went to the hospital's accident and emergency unit on Friday complaining that she had vomited blood the night before. The 30-year-old was referred by a nurse to the poly clinic where she waited for nearly four hours to be treated.

"At that time her condition had deteriorated, and she started vomiting blood again. She was then taken back to the casualty unit where she collapsed and died," said Gauteng health spokesperson Mandla Sidu.

Sidu said the department's chief of operations Dr Abul Rahman said the suspension was effected to allow for investigations to go onunhindered. "The investigations will be completed by next week Tuesday. Should the investigations reveal acts of negligence, appropriate action would be taken."

Mlotshwa was a domestic worker working for a family in Emmarentia. Her employer Anne Holden told a daily newspaper yesterday that she felt the hospital staff was negligent, and that Mlotshwa's death was unnecessary.