The mistreatment of patients at Helen Joseph Hospital is not new, despite the uproar caused by the recent video shared on various social media platforms by former broadcaster Tom London. In the video which has since gone viral, London highlights the poor infrastructure and lack of beds at the hospital. He details poor patient care, accusing doctors of treating patients “like cockroaches”.  

I guess not even the much talked about National Health Insurance (NHI) will close the inequality gap in public health institutions for as long as some of the healthcare workers don’t treat patients with respect and compassion.

Let me refresh your memory about NHI, the scheme was signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa into law in May this year. The NHI promises to make healthcare easily accessible to every South African. 

As much as we know that this won’t happen overnight, I believe there should be some kind of improvement in our public institutions. But that is not the case.

After London’s video went viral, the department was quick to say it will investigate allegations of negligence. 

That was a shock, especially because there have been countless reports about this dismal state of affairs. For example, in May, Health-e News wrote a story about the state of public health facilities in Gauteng. 

The article titled “A ‘province in shambles’- Gauteng health workers talk about the state of public health facilities” did not get any response from the department till this day. 

And I have first-hand experience of mistreatment of patients and negligence at Helen Joseph Hospital.

I am one of the people who made the difficult decision to ditch my medical aid last year because, as a single mother of two, I couldn’t cope financially. This year, on 28 May, I made my way to Helen Joseph Hospital because my right foot was so painful that it was difficult to walk. A friend advised me to get to the hospital before 8am. So I headed straight to the hospital after dropping my son off at school.

I was a bit nervous as I have written many stories where patients complained about negligence and mistreatment by healthcare workers in public hospitals. 

I got to the hospital just before 8am, where I was directed to the nursing station at the outpatient department. I received my queue number which was 65 – I was the 65th person to be assisted that morning – I joined the queue to have my blood pressure and glucose levels checked. 

There were about 30 people in the queue and it was moving swiftly and I thought, “this can’t be bad”. But soon my thoughts were interrupted by a nurse shouting on top of her lungs: “Ladies and gentlemen not all of us can squat. When you go to the toilet please make sure to leave it clean”. 

You are probably wondering why people are squatting in the toilet; there was no toilet paper. 

And yes, as shown in London’s video, the women’s toilet had a broken seat. After the blood pressure and glucose were measured, we went back to the nursing station to be sent to a doctor’s room. 

I spent a couple of hours waiting to see a doctor who didn’t examine me. She simply made notes on a form about the reason I said I was at the hospital for. This doctor sent me back to open a patient file. This process took at least 30 minutes because there were already other patients waiting for their files. 

From there I went back to the nursing station to be allocated a second doctor who would assist. Luckily I was the first one in this queue. The doctor I saw was very nice and after consultation he sent me for an X-ray.

By that time, I had been at the hospital for about six hours.

I went to the X-ray department and met a lady with a stinking attitude, who was registering people for X-rays. I was a patient in pain and she aggressively demanded the X-ray letter. 

Mind you I had no clue what it looked like. I explained that I was sent by the doctor. She said she could not help me without the doctor’s letter before throwing the file back at me. 

I was appalled by her attitude and nervously asked her where do the doctors normally place the X-ray letters. She just looked at me as if I were losing it. 

Luckily I paged through my file and there was the letter. 

After receiving my X-ray scan which was done immediately, I went back to the second doctor who then wrote me a referral letter to see a podiatrist. I was shown where to make an appointment and guess what – the next available date is in January next year. The gentleman responsible for the appointments was kind enough to tell me that he would call me if there is any cancellation. I then went for blood tests and by the time I left the hospital at 3pm, I was in a lot of pain. The doctor said he couldn’t give me any medication because he did not know what was wrong with me.

I went back a week later for the blood test results. I had to follow the same procedure from the nursing station to taking vitals and going to the queue for the file which took about three hours.

While we were waiting for our hospital files, an old man kept asking the nurses for help. Each time he asked he was told to wait. 

We finally got our files and went back to the nursing station to be allocated to a doctor. The reception area was so cold because all the windows were open. We were seated very close to each other and there were patients who did not care to cover their mouths when coughing. After an hour of waiting the same old man who had been asking for help, collapsed. 

Almost immediately I heard a whistle and saw doctors and nurses coming from all directions to the rescue of the old man. The old man was taken to one of the doctor’s rooms and I didn’t see him again. I mean, this could have been avoided if he had received help when he asked for it.

After this incident, the waiting continued as if nothing happened. The nurses chatted and laughed in front of us as if we were not there. By 2pm, I gave up. There was no sign of us getting any help that day. 

I left the hospital without my blood test results. By the time I reached the parking lot, I was already on the phone signing up for medical aid. 

An investigation alone cannot fix the ailing public health hospitals. Action is needed to save patients from arrogant healthcare workers. Equally important is to hear the complaints of every patient. It cannot be that the department picks and chooses whose cries to listen to. – Health-e News