By OBAKENG MAJE
The water crisis continues to persist in Vryburg and has affected the smooth-running operations at Joe Morolong Memorial Hospital. Now, the hospital is diverting patients that were to be referred to Joe Morolong Memorial Hospital.
The North West MEC for Health, Madoda Sambatha told Taung DailyNews that, the only patients that will be accepted and assisted are those with referral letters, booked patients, and those who need emergency.
According to Sambatha, walk-in patients will be triaged based on history and clinical signs.
“No patient requiring emergency care will be refused hospital treatment, however, patients who do not meet the above-mentioned criteria are advised that they will be not prioritised.
“It is suggested that, they seek a first point of care at the available primary health care facilities such as Huhudi Community Healthcare Centre (CHC), Gateway clinic, and Coldrige,” he said.
Sambatha further said, the hospital is highly affected by the water crisis. He added they have been tinkering for the past two weeks, but that is not sustainable enough.
“So, we have instructed the hospital and the provincial office to do a process of projecting, where we should send patients in the future and move the ones that we have.
“This is to avoid a situation, where infection control comes and haunts us because we are delivering services without water. The availability of water to healthcare is a primary source,” said Sambatha.
He said, however, because of the non-availability of water, they have decided to reduce the patients that are available at the hospital and also stop admitting new patients on a basis to decide on the management plan for the ones that are already admitted.
“Plans have been made to who we admit and which type of patients. So, this will not affect patients, but their families in terms of where would their patients be admitted, instead of Joe Morolong Memorial Hospital.
“We will use the district hospitals that we have in our sub-districts. So, this is a temporary measure due to the unavailability of water,” he said.
The Guardian 