Management at the Kalafong Provincial Tertiary Hospital fear for the lives of their patients as police do not take action against members of the Operation Dudula Movement, who continued with their anti-foreigner protest outside the facility despite a court order preventing them from doing so.
Hospital spokesperson Hlengani Makhuvhela said the defiance was a clear contempt of the court order, which the department of health obtained on Friday, as they continued to threaten and intimidate foreigners making their way to the facility yesterday.
The facility has now written to Tshwane district police commissioner's office, pleading for action.
“We have written to the district police commissioner’s office through our risk assessment office and hope that this will help us return the situation to normal. We are knocking all doors to try and get assistance. As a hospital we are worried that we are sitting on a ticking time bomb.”
Makhuvhela said the presence of Operation Dudula members is going to deter certain patients from getting into the hospital and that is tantamount to intimidation. “If this continues we might face adverse consequences such a losing lives because some patients will be too scared to come and get their treatment.
“Some of our patients' conditions might deteriorate if they continue to be turned back. The attendance of our patients has been fluctuating, because on some days they [Operation Dudula members] would not come.
“Now that they are consistent, some patients have shied away completely, but some still come and they stand at a distance hoping that when the group moves away they have a chance to enter the hospital.”
Makhuvhela said the hospital has limited resources to challenge the group and were relying on law enforcement to abide by the court order. “We contacted law enforcement on the first day the problem arose. Following that we were asked to get a court interdict, which we now have and yet the situation remains unchanged,” he said.
A radiology staff member at the hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said while he did not agree with the movement's approach, the hospital was over-burdened. “Most of my patients are undocumented foreign nationals. We get to a point where it’s a whole ward full of them.
“We sometimes run out of wheelchairs, drips and even face overcrowding. This leads us to discharging some people before their time so we can make space for others and it is very risky.
“But the most burdened department is maternity. We really have to stretch our resources beyond the imaginable. If government can fix our borders and have proper laws, we would see a lot of difference,” the staff member said.
He said while the number of undocumented foreign patients had decreased since the protest, there were many others who were still finding their way into the hospital.
sibiyan@sowetan.co.za
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