One of the two ambulances servicing the community in the Ratlou local municipality had gone for tyre replacement on the day a heavily pregnant woman prematurely gave birth to twins who later died.
North West health MEC made the shocking revelation when he visited Refilwe Bantsejang, 26, and her family in Madibogo village, near Mahikeng, on Monday.
Last month, Sowetan reported how Bantsejang said she walked to the Madibogo Pan Clinic, which is about 600m away from her home, on August 19.
She said she was not aware that she was pregnant with twins until she went into labour, despite going to the facility for prenatal care.
The first baby was delivered at the clinic's gate as she was assisted by her mother Anna Bantsejang and they said their cries for help fell on deaf ears and nurses ignored them.
The other baby was delivered by nurses inside the facility. This led to nurses waiting nearly three hours for an ambulance to take her to Gelukspan Hospital, some 20km away.
Sambatha on Monday apologised to the family, saying the issue of insufficient ambulances must be looked at.
“This area is under-serviced. Someone who needs an ambulance quicker is not going to get it. The ambulance that serves this area was not available on the day [Bantsejang lost her twins] because it had to go to Mahikeng for the replacement of tyres,” he said.
Sambatha said they had problem with a shortage of ambulances in the province.
“That is why we want to move away from buying them [ambulances] to lease. You lease for availability at any given time,” he said.
The clinic had to close for two days after the incident as community members threatened health officials, which Sambatha said was wrong.
“I instituted an investigation, it must tell you who is wrong or who is right..
“We need a medical report so that we can look at how the delivery was done against having the babies losing their lives,” he said.
He also promised to help the family pay R3,000 they had borrowed to cover burial costs.
Denosa regional chairman Tshepo Monoketsi said the nurses acted on time. “We are duty-bound to make sure that all members are safe. Their safety cannot be compromised.”
He pleaded with Sambatha to increase the number of staff members at that clinic.
“We are saying there should be enough staff who can respond to issues. There are two staff members, one professional nurse and an assistant nurse, that cannot be enough to deal with the eventuality,” he said.
Bantsejang said she appreciated Sambatha’s visit. “I am happy that he came and promised to help us with the debt we have because of burial debt,” she said.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.