Time for action after spotlight falls on dysfunctional Nelson Mandela Bay hospitals

There is a devastating skills drain, compounded by government inertia and systemic dysfunction at Nelson Mandela Bay’s public hospitals.

This newspaper reported this week on the city’s three top state hospitals that have a total of 74 medical doctor positions standing vacant.

This is crippling health care for the poor, delaying urgent surgery and pushing overworked staff to the edge.

Making matters worse, there is also a dire shortage of nursing staff, leaving critical services hamstrung.

The doctor shortage stretches across 21 departments at Livingstone, Port Elizabeth Provincial and Dora Nginza tertiary hospitals, and includes juniors (medical officers and registrars) and seniors (specialists).

Senior staff members have voiced their frustrations at the situation getting progressively worse.

Tertiary hospitals such s Dora Nginza, Livingstone and Port Elizabeth Provincial are becoming places where patients wait years for surgeries, where life-threatening emergencies go unattended, and where doctors trained at the state’s expense are walking away in frustration.

And for the majority of South Africans who do not have medical aid, there is nowhere else to go.

They have no choice but to endure poor service and wait for extended periods of time for some kind of assistance.

The health department has been grappling with a medico-legal claims problem, and it is largely as a result of negligence on the part of medical professionals.

The medico-legal claims will not go away if the staffing crisis at the hospitals is not urgently addressed. That, and the shortage of life-saving medication is urgent.

Eastern Cape health MEC Ntandokazi Capa said the department was doing everything possible to minimise the shortage of staff in facilities across the province.

“We are doing our best to employ, but of course due to the extensive shortage of staff it may not seem enough ... but we are [trying],” Capa said.

Our hope is that with the spotlight placed on these hospitals, we will begin to see some meaningful work being done to turn things around.

The Herald