Cape Town – Patients, some critically ill, say they have to sleep on benches and sometimes on the floor for days at a time because of a shortage of beds at Helderberg Hospital in Somerset West .

Marius Gerber, 45, of Somerset West, who claims to have had a heart attack on Tuesday morning, spent more than 48 hours on a plastic chair in the hospital’s trauma unit. At some point he had to sleep in his car after he was told there wasn’t a bed for him.

He was only given a bed on Thursday afternoon, shortly after the Cape Argus queried the situation and the alleged bed shortage with the provincial health department.

Gerber’s wife, Mariette, described the bed shortage at the hospital as dire.

She called CapeTalk breakfast show host Kieno Kammies to explain the situation on Thursday morning.

When she initially saw her husband seated on a chair at the hospital, she thought the arrangement was temporary and that he would be seated there for only a few hours.