I am a professional nurse working at Zithulele Hospital in Mqanduli, Eastern Cape. I was excited when I started working here ten years ago as the hospital was one of the best rural hospitals, running like a well-oiled machine.

However, things changed in September 2021 with the appointment of Nolubabalo Fatyela, the hospital CEO. 

The 150-bed hospital serves a population of about 130 000 every month. We work under difficult circumstances. 

There are times when we struggle with hypodermic needles (hospital needles). According to the law a needle can be used once to administer medicine and withdraw blood. 

We are forced to use one needle for the whole ward which sometimes has eight patients. There is also a shortage of gauze bandages to dress patients with sores and septic circumcision, but you have to improvise. 

The hospital does not even have adult diapers, sanitary pads for women after they give birth or even nappies for children. Remember some people are unemployed and depend on government grants so they cannot afford to buy these things.

When there is no water, nurses have to leave the hundreds of patients waiting to be attended to and rush to the local river to fetch water using 20-litre buckets. 

The hospital is forever out of toilet paper. Some patients use paper and at times we are told to buy it [toilet paper] from our own pockets. 

I don’t understand why the hospital is struggling to buy toilet paper because when patients are admitted they pay a certain amount. 

At times, the hospital does not even have hand soap or paper towels. Nurses have to bring hand soap from their houses and dry their hands on their uniforms. 

Some patients don’t have toiletries because they don’t have families who are visiting them, and out of generosity you end up buying those from your own pocket.

Our safety is compromised 

Two years back a nurse was shot here at the hospital and she later died. We don’t know what happened to the case.

We were shocked when the Eastern Cape Department of Health decided to accommodate the CEO for two years in hotels and pay over R500 000 because (they said) she was not safe. 

What about the nurses who have to deal with mental health patients in a general hospital without adequate safety features? 

These patients are not only a danger to themselves but also to the nurses and doctors attending to them. 

Recently a colleague was attacked by a patient suffering from mental illness. We don’t even have a danger allowance. 

I have lost count of the number of mentally ill patients who have escaped from the psych ward in this hospital. The windows don’t have burglar bars. 

They (patients) usually escape using the toilet windows. In such instances, we as nurses have to drive around in our cars to look for them. 

We are not comfortable with the way things are because we are not safe.

Male and female mental health patients are made to share one ward. This places the female patients at risk because they can get raped by the male patients. And the nurses will be to blame should something of that nature happen.

A beacon of hope for the community 

Zithulele Hospital was a beacon of hope for the community before the appointment of Fatyela. 

There were NGOs who assisted the hospital financially. As a result, a lot of students from the community received study bursaries. 

There were employment opportunities as different projects were introduced to the community.  The hospital had a coffee shop which employed the locals, unfortunately, it is no longer operating. 

Senior doctors have since left, putting a strain on the few who are still here. I still cannot believe that the hospital is in this terrible state because of one person. – Health-e News