Update
GEORGE NEWS - Following an article in last week's George Herald about the death of Lynn Dargan who died in George Hospital after what her family believes to be gross neglect, the newspaper has been inundated with e-mails, Facebook comments, messages and calls from people claiming to have had similar experiences.
Although many feel that George Hospital is the best provincial hospital in the country, there are those who don't have any faith in some of the nursing staff.
In an e-mail to George Herald, a man who wishes to have his name withheld says he has launched a R22m lawsuit against the hospital for what he believes to be gross negligence after his wife died due to sepsis after surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from her colon in October last year.
She was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer that had spread to her stomach and uterus. "By the time she was operated in George in late September, it had grown to 40cm and weighed 10kg," the husband told George Herald.
"A couple of days after surgery she started acting strange. I reported it to the doctors, who at that stage weren't even aware of any issues resulting from my wife's surgery. She was delirious and kept on vomiting. After enquiring about her condition they found that the internal stitches had torn loose from her colon and fluid had leaked into her stomach, which led to sepsis.
"She had to undergo emergency surgery, but it was too late. She wasn't even 47 and died in my arms on 1 October. If it was picked up earlier, things might have been different," he said.
George Hospital responds to complaints and comments
"Successful health care requires ongoing collaboration between patients and health care workers," says chief executive officer of George Hospital, Michael Vonk.
"As a public health system, we are working towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC), which WHO defines as 'all people have access to the health services they need, when and where they need them, without financial hardship'. Nearly 80% of 680 000 people
living in the Garden Route and Central Karoo do not have medical aid and George Hospital is their only access point to specialist hospital care. We believe that the right to health care is a fundamental human right.
"This means that all people should have access to the full range of essential health services - from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care - and not only a privileged minority who can afford private care. However, this requires that healthcare workers, political leaders and communities take hands and find a collective will to bring about the health reforms we so desperately need."
Access to basic health care
Vonk says as a step towards ensuring all South Africans have access to basic health care, Western Cape Government Health and George Hospital have adopted the Patients' Rights Charter to uphold, promote and protect our rights to effective health services.
The Patients' Rights Charter sets out a common standard that patients can expect and includes rights of access, rights to confidentiality and privacy and rights to complain about health care services.
"We recognise and fully subscribe to the principle that everyone has the right to complain about the health care and to have such complaints investigated and receive a full response on such investigation. The right to complain is fundamental to ensuring the dignity of patients and improving the quality of care we provide," says Vonk.
"Feedback from patients and families, whether complaints, compliments or suggestions, is how we learn and provide us with an opportunity to do better. We take all complaints seriously, investigate thoroughly, give feedback to patients or families and take appropriate action to reduce or prevent recurrence."
Healthcare workers traumatised by comments
"The Patients' Rights Charter also sets out the responsibilities of patients, which includes respecting the rights of health workers and healthcare providers. Many of the recent comments published on social media did not respect the rights and dignity of healthcare workers.
"Many of the hardworking nurses, doctors and other healthcare workers at George Hospital who go above and beyond every day to give their best to patients were left feeling traumatised by some of the public comments, tarnished by the same hurtful anonymous brush.
"Many of the posts were destructive, malicious and designed to hurt - and without any doubt succeeded in their intention. As healthcare workers, we recognise our humanity, which is fundamental to the care we provide. However, it is our same humanity that means that we do not always get it right all of the time, although we try continuously.
"We do get tired, we do get upset and sometimes we do make mistakes, which is human. But all we ask of our patients is to respectfully engage the staff or managers at the time, so that we have an opportunity to resolve the problem or complaint immediately," said Vonk.
Influence of Covid-19
Individuals and communities have a right to health, but also a responsibility to take care of their own health and the health of their families and to use and access the health system responsibly.
"We understood and witnessed this during the Covid-19 pandemic, where the public was asked to help mitigate the extent of the pandemic and reduce the massive burden of very sick patients the health system needed to treat. We should not forget the lessons the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us, and now more than ever as we try to recover from the devastation it has caused, the health system and communities should work together to improve the health of the community we serve and live in.
"We continuously implement interventions to improve our services and access to care at George Hospital, such as appointing staff to open additional theatre lists to address surgical backlogs and opening extra psychiatry beds to help treat the growing number of patients with acute mental health needs."
Limited health resources
"Health resources are limited, nationally, provincially and not just locally," says Vonk. George Hospital is the only regional hospital in the Garden Route and staff are stretched on a daily basis.
"However, we are committed to providing the best possible health care for our community, treating our patients with compassion and dignity. Our nurses and doctors who were portrayed as healthcare superheroes during the pandemic have not overnight all become supervillains.
"My appeal is that the patients and families do the same and treat our hardworking healthcare workers with the same compassion and dignity they deserve. Let's work together as individuals, communities and healthcare workers to further achieve quality healthcare for all."
Where and how to complain
"The department welcomes compliments and complaints as this is an important aspect of service delivery and guiding us to see where we can improve service delivery or where we need to change or adapt our service design," says Nadia Ferreira, district spokesperson for the Western Cape Department of Health. Complainants are however asked to use the official channels for complaints. For George Hospital complaints specifically, they are asked to:
• Speak to a manager to see if you can resolve the problem or complaint immediately.
• If the unit manager is not available, then the hospital co-ordinator (day or night) can be contacted – please ask for this person or contact via the switchboard.
• If you are not happy with the feedback received, kindly contact the Quality Assurance Department at GeorgeHospital.Feedback@westerncape.gov.za / 044 802 4498.
• Your complaint will be acknowledged within five working days and should be resolved within 25 working days – as per departmental guidelines.
Please call me
If you're unhappy with the care or treatment you received from a Western Cape Government health facility, send a "Please Call Me" to 079 769 1207 or call 0860 142 142 to lodge your complaint with the Western Cape Department of Health.
This communication channel is specifically for patients who are unhappy about health services.
Sending a complaint
• SMS the word "Help", followed by your name, the nature of your complaint, facility and, if applicable, the name of a staff member, to 31022.
• Call 0860 142 142 and press "1".
• Send an e-mail to service@westerncape.gov.za.
• A call centre was set up to attend to SMSes, calls and e-mails between 07:00 and 19:00 from Monday to Friday. Complaints can be sent after these hours, but these queries will only be dealt with the next day at 07:00.
Related article: 'Gross neglect' at Hospital investigated
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