Africa-Press – South-Africa. Polokwane Provincial Hospital in Limpopo has been plagued by a rat and cockroach infestation, with patients now worried about nosocomial infections.
The provincial health department on Tuesday confirmed that there was an increase in pests at the facility.
News24 spoke to relatives of some of patients and they expressed worry over the health and safety of their loved ones.
Lesetja Manamela was contemplating having his mother discharged so she can recuperate at home.
“We have to bring her food daily because she is afraid of eating the in-house food because of the cockroaches there.
“She says she can’t even sleep well because she is afraid of rats,” Manamela said.
Another relative, Sophie Mamabolo, was also worried that her sister would get infected while at the facility.
Mamabolo said:
The EFF has threatened to storm the hospital and “do pest control ourselves”.
“When patients get admitted to healthcare facilities, we expect them to get better, heal and go back to join their beloved family members but, at Polokwane Hospital, such is not a possibility.
“Patients get admitted, only to become worse. It is for this reason that health facilities in Limpopo are referred to as hospitals of death,” the EFF in Limpopo said.
Some staff members described their working conditions as “perplexing”.
“We can’t do anything but wait for the authorities. Some of us are afraid of rats, and it’s just not good at all,” one staffer said.
Provincial health spokesperson Neil Shikwambana said the department’s environmental unit was investigating the cause of increased pest infestation at the hospital.
“The matter of increase [of pests] is a matter we deal with on a regular basis through our environmental health unit in order to find the factors which might be causing the increase, so as to find other measures to be taken.”
Shikwambana added:
Meanwhile, the department has denied that it is to return more than R71 million of unspent conditional grants to the National Treasury.
Shikwambana said the unspent amount was R46.7 million, which the department used to purchase machinery and equipment for cancer treatment.
“But, because by the end of the financial year the machine had not yet been delivered, the department could not pay the amount to the company because that would amount to irregular expenditure,” he said.
He added that the department had requested that the amount be rolled over until the service provider delivers the machine.
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