GEORGE NEWS - An aids sufferer from the Wilderness Heights informal settlement lay helpless and emaciated in horrible conditions in her shack for two months despite efforts by a Good Samaritan to get her admitted to a facility for palliative care.

Sonja Burger, the charitable Wilderness Heights resident who tried to help the late Griet Baartman (53), says a neighbour of the sick woman made her aware of her plight. 

When Burger turned to the Bethesda care facility for help, she was informed that patients are only admitted upon referral by George Hospital.

Griet was then taken to the hospital. Here she had to sit upright in her wheelchair for several hours.

According to Nadia Ferreira, district spokesperson for the Western Cape Health Department (WCHD), Baartman was triaged as green with complaints of diarrhoea. "After evaluating her condition and situation, the doctor followed the correct protocol to have a patient admitted for palliative care. A social worker at her local clinic must do an assessment and then refer her for palliative care. Following this protocol, the doctor referred Ms Baartman to Touwsranten Clinic. The doctor dispensed appropriate medication for her to take home."

However, at the clinic they found out that the social worker was on leave, says Burger. Promises were made that she would contact the family upon her return. "This never happened, despite numerous phone calls to the clinic over the next two months. I left how many messages. An official at Child Welfare also tried to help us get assistance, but even she did not manage to get the clinic to make the necessary arrangements."

Burger also approached an old age home, but Baartman was too young to be admitted there.

In the meantime her condition deteriorated as her young son was not able to give her the care she needed. Burger then approached George Herald.

Some days after a query was sent to the Western Cape Health Department, Baartman presented again at George Hospital and was admitted. According to Ferreira, a multidisciplinary team at the hospital assessed her with the aim to refer her to Bethesda. However, her medical condition required in-hospital treatment before she could be transferred. She passed away in hospital on 18 March before that could happen.

An upset Burger says the system had failed Baartman. "One should be able to at least die in dignity, but nobody seemed to care enough to act and make sure that she enjoyed some decent care until her death. She was in a very, very poor state."

Baartman had been ill for over two years, the majority of which she was in the care of a family member in Touwsranten before she returned to her own home in Wilderness Heights.

There she was not getting her antiretro-virals regularly. "She could not be moved and the mobile clinic services were apparently not very regular and no home-based visits were carried out. Now, after the newspaper had started asking questions, a vehicle bringing medication was suddenly seen again at the squatter camp," says Burger.

Ferreira says WCHD provides the service and medication, but it is then the responsibility of the patient to stay on treatment as prescribed by health staff. "If they are unable to do this, the patient or their family should please communicate early with the clinic staff to request home-based care.

"When their palliative care needs are identified, a palliative care referral is made by the attending doctor or nurse. The patient is registered on the palliative care database and a community health worker is identified to visit the patient on a regular basis."

Bethesda manager Madeleine Meyer confirmed they are aware of Burger's request for Baartman's admission.

"We do have specific admittance criteria as not all types of patients can be cared for here." Their policy is that George Hospital, a clinic or medical practitioner has to refer a patient since a clear diagnosis and medication prescriptions are needed before admission, for which Bethesda's staff are not trained.

"Therefore the person who made the query was informed that it would be best to get the patient to a clinic or George Hospital to refer her."

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