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Shocking conditions at Bernice Samuel hospital

LAST Monday Sowetan exposed the dire conditions at the Bernice Samuel Hospital in Delmas, Mpumalanga, where nurses claimed to be burnt out and pregnant women lay on beds in corridors.

Nurses were struggling to attend to the 5,000 patients they see each month. There were only 16 doctors instead of the required 24 .

Added to this the provincial health department had announced that the use of locum doctors would be suspended because of expensive overtime pay.

The hospital was very clean, though.

The province currently has an 81% vacancy rate for doctors and 66% for nurses, adding pressure to problems at 33 hospitals in Mpumalanga.

The hospital's patient intake had also increased by 2700 during the first quarter of this year to 17,500.

Nurses were doubling up as HIV counsellors and space constraints resulted in pregnant women giving birth on the floor of the delivery room, which has only two beds.

While most nurses complained of exhaustion, several unscrupulous colleagues were allegedly abusing the overtime policy and taking home more than the allowed 30% of their salaries in overtime.

In August the hospital paid out about R300,000 in overtime salaries.

Gross staff shortages had also affected the newly built surgical theatre, worth R26-million, which had become a white elephant.

At the time of the exposé, department spokesman Dumisani Mlangeni said that doctors' vacancy rate would be reduced from 81 to 60%.

- sifilel@sowetan.co.za

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