BARA BABY HORROR AND SERIOUS PROBLEMS AT SA HOSPITALS

I am alarmed and saddened by the report today of poor care received by a woman in labour at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital that allegedly led to the death of her baby daughter.

Rudzani Molaudzi (22) says that she was "forced" to deliver her baby by herself last week at the hospital after being ignored for hours by staff while she was in labour.

When her baby was born, a doctor pronounced that she was dead without examining her. The baby then started crying and was rushed to ICU, but died nine hours later.

This latest incident comes after the disclosure by Gauteng Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa in reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature that 1338 infants died at birth at this hospital between 2014 and 2016.

The department claims that there is no negligent care at the neonatal and maternity units, but I really doubt this denial.

There are 15 vacancies at these units that need to be filled urgently and answers are needed about the many reports of poor care.

I have requested the Gauteng Health Department for an oversight visit to the hospital next week to find out why so many babies are dying or become brain-damaged because of negligence.

We need to know what the problems are at this hospital and what is being done to fix them.

Statement by Jack Bloom MPL
DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC

 That's not all...............................

Huge bed shortage and poor facilities for psychiatric patients in Gauteng
by Jack Bloom MPL - DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC

Treatment of psychiatric patients in Gauteng is hugely compromised by a shortage of about 2700 beds and unsuitable facilities in bad repair.

This is my conclusion following a 22 page comprehensive written reply by Gauteng Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature.

According to norms for severe psychiatric conditions, there should be 28 acute psychiatric beds/100 000 people. There should therefore be 3780 such beds for 13.5 million people in Gauteng, but there are only 1058 beds.

A major problem is that many patients admitted to hospitals for the required 72 hour treatment and observation period are not placed in dedicated psychiatric wards.

Gauteng public hospitals admitted 18387 psychiatric patients in 2016, but 4425 of these (24%) were placed in ordinary wards with other patients.

The worst affected hospital is South Rand Hospital which had 2586 psychiatric patients last year, but 972 of them were placed in ordinary wards because the two psychiatric wards were full. This led to three psychiatric patients dying because they jumped from windows, and one patient raped another because of inadequate security.

The following hospitals have no dedicated psychiatric wards at all but still accept large numbers of psychiatric patients:

Pholosong - admitted 763 psychiatric patients in 2016
Far East Rand - admitted 711 psychiatric patients in 2016
Heidelberg - admitted 285 psychiatric patients in a general medical ward in 2016
Bheki Mlangeni - admitted 95 psychiatric patients in 2016
Other hospitals do have psychiatric wards but these are inadequate so many psychiatric patients are placed in other wards as per the following figures for 2016:
Thelle Mogoerane - admitted 1504 psychiatric patients, 1113 of whom were placed in general wards
Sebokeng - admitted 673 psychiatric patients, but 192 were placed in general wards
Tambo Memorial - admitted 507 psychiatric patients, but placed 214 in general wards
Jubilee - admitted 495 psychiatric patients, and placed 49 in general wards
Leratong - admitted 965 psychiatric patients, and only had to place 24 in other wards

Placement of psychiatric patients in general wards is not ideal as there should be special security measures both for their safety and the safety of others. A number of suicides, injuries and sexual assaults have already been reported at various hospitals for this reason.

Many of the psychiatric wards are in a poor state and need urgent repair.

The psychiatric ward at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital was meant to be upgraded ten years ago, but has been delayed by incompetent contractors who could not finish the job. The department says there are "plumbing challenges" at this ward - earlier this year patients could not take a bath or shower in the ward because of leaks into other wards. The latest projection is that ward renovations will be completed in May next year, which remains to be seen.

New psychiatric wards at Helen Joseph Hospital have also been delayed for many years by incompetent contractors. Ramokgopa says that the construction work has been suspended and work will commence after a contractor has been reappointed.

Psychiatric Ward 2 at this hospital has basic facilities but doors don't close properly in the bathrooms, and there are no toilet seats. There is no facility to properly house contained patients - they are now put into lockable rooms with a moveable bed instead of an immovable/concrete bed.

Psychiatric Ward 3 at the hospital is " an incomplete shell. No vinyl on the floor, no equipment, no beds or linen."

The only psychiatric wards deemed to be in reasonable condition are at the Steve Biko, Chris Hani Baragwanath, Bertha Gxowa and Kalafong hospitals.

Problems at other hospitals include the following:

Thelle Moegerane (New Natalspruit) Hospital) - the bed capacity of the psychiatric unit is smaller than the previous Natalspruit Hospital and there is no CCTV in the ward.

Sebokeng Hospital - the current ward is not compliant to the provisions of the Mental Health Act.

Pholosong Hospital - the cubicles where the psychiatric oatients are admitted are not conducive for such patients. There is no seclusion facility for violent patients.

George Mukhari Hospital - the sewage system needs revamp. The seclusion rooms need refurbishment. Need an appropriate recreation room.

Tembisa Hospital - no space for Occupational Therapy Services

There are infrastructure problems at all the four specialized mental hospitals, with major renovations needed at the Weskoppies and Tara hospitals.

Cullinan Hospital

Only 8 out of 14 wards are functional at the Cullinan Hospital which has 285 beds for mentally retarded patients.

Sterkfontein Hospital

This hospital has 813 beds in total. Most of the wards are in acceptable standards but minor infrastructure defects arise intermittently.

Ward 11 is habitable but requires significant infrastructural renovations.

Ward 5 was found unsuitable for use and is currently closed.

Weskoppies Hospital

Ramokgopa's reply gives four-and-a-half pages of detail on repair, maintenance and required upgrading at this hospital which has deteriorated alarmingly.

Of greatest concern is that Wards 8, 9, 12 and 13 were "Urgently renovated to accommodate Life Esidimeni patients. Presently not in good condition ... the sewer line, water pipes and locking systems not addressed. Plumbing a great challenge."

It is horrific that Esidimeni patients rescued from unsuitable NGOs are now in substandard wards at Weskoppies.

The High Risk Forensic Ward and the Observation Unit are not in good condition and need to be renovated.

Eight wards have been evacuated and are closed because they are in poor condition.

Other buildings at the hospital are also assessed to be needing repairs.

Unreliable electricity for shock therapy -
the building used for Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) does not have an uninterrupted power supply, and power failures have interrupted ECT, which is disastrous. An uninterrupted power supply is needed urgently, but is not budgeted for in this financial year.

A new 300 bed hospital is in the planning phase, with building meant to commence in 2018, but I doubt that this will happen given the past poor record in building hospitals.

Tara Hospital

There are 8 functioning wards with 137 beds but a myriad of faults and structural issues are listed.

Problems include the following:

Ward 1/2 - physical structure not conducive to the treatment of patients, space too small on the first floor. Adolescent patients may be able to jump through the windows. Courtyard and garden not usable as patients can abscond, so patients are kept indoors most of the time.

Ward 4/5 - there is no examination room, same room is used as a computer room. Cracked ceiling causes leakage during rainy season and all the rooms need painting.

Ward 6 - there are no rooms to conduct group sessions. No space to fit a bed for physical examination in the treatment room. No burglar bars in the kitchen and the TV room.

Ward 7 - leaking pipes, blocked toilets. Courtyard needs proper fencing. Security gate and CCTV cameras not working, high risk of patients absconding.

Ward 8 - roof and toilets leaking. The ceiling in the corridor leading to the courtyard is about to collapse.

Ward 9 has a variety of structural issues and becomes extremely cold in winter.

Conclusion

Psychiatric patients are very vulnerable, but present treatment facilities are grossly inadequate.

I am greatly concerned by the shortage of acute psychiatric beds and the poor state of many psychiatric wards in Gauteng.

The Esidimeni tragedy has focused attention on the plight of mental health patients but much more work is needed to provide consistent high-quality care for mental health problems.

Think that is bad, Chris Mapasa posted some photos about another hospital ........... 

 

'Black South Africans Treated Like Pigs By The ANC-Department of Health'

Kalafong hospital:

What a disgrace to our people in South Africa and an embarrassment to the civilised world !

Share, share, and share again, so that the ANC elite in government can be shamed as they steal millions, roll in affluence, eat their caviar & fly their jets.

Provincial hospitals are chronically understaffed and underbudget - driven by choice from the top - clearly our government is discriminating against the weak & sick, and is recklessly abusing our citizens, and mismanaging our country.

Chris Mapasa

Charlottesville, Virginia: the history of the statue at the centre of violent unrest

The statue of Robert Lee in Charlottesville.
Shutterstock

The violent scenes in Charlottesville, Virginia, that led to the death of one woman and left many more injured began as a dispute over a statue of General Robert E. Lee, which sits in a local public park. However, the controversy feeds into a much wider debate that is as old as the United States itself. So who was Lee and why does a memorial to him trouble so many people?

The meeting of white supremacists in Charlottesville was originally held under the pretext of demonstrating against plans to remove the statue. The Charlottesville city council voted in February for it to be removed from the recently renamed Emancipation Park (formerly Lee Park). The decision came as part of a movement to challenge the ubiquity of Confederate symbols in the South.

These statues, for their opponents, signify the oppression of African Americans under slavery and the Jim Crow segregation laws. They serve as daily reminders of the vulnerability of black people. The message of such monuments is the same to many of their defenders, even if their interpretation is different. To the white supremacists who gathered on the streets of Charlottesville, the statue of Lee represents white military and political power.

In the decades after the Civil War, memorials celebrating the south’s valiant effort and glorious defeat appeared all over the region. They embodied the myth of the “lost cause” – the idea that the war had been fought to defend states’ rights, rather than slavery. In this interpretation, the south only lost because of the industrial might of the northern “aggressor”.

This doctrine came to prominence during the Jim Crow era when whites implemented racial segregation through violent, extra-legal and then legal means. The lost cause memory was used to justify and enforce white supremacy.

For many, the Confederate memorials continue to represent this repression. They are a celebration of southern identity as white. Since the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, the slogan “BLM”, as well as the names of victims of police shootings have appeared on memorials around the country. “Black Lives Matter” was sprayed on Charlottesville’s Lee statue in the days following the Charleston church shootings in 2015. Along with calls for the removal of Confederate flags from civic buildings there have been increasingly vocal, and successful, demands to reconsider the place of monuments in public spaces.

Who was Robert E. Lee?

The statue in Charlottesville is of Lee atop his horse, Traveller. The Confederate general and native of Virginia holds a hat in one hand and his horse’s reins in the other, his sword ready at his side.

It was unveiled by Lee’s great-granddaughter at a ceremony in May 1924. As was the custom on these occasions it was accompanied by a parade and speeches. In the dedication address, Lee was celebrated as a hero, who embodied “the moral greatness of the Old South”, and as a proponent of reconciliation between the two sections. The war itself was remembered as a conflict between “interpretations of our Constitution” and between “ideals of democracy.”

Here was the states’ rights argument. The south fought a noble war over its right to self-determination, rather than an effort to keep millions enslaved. Lee, claimed one of the speakers, “abhorred slavery”. In his position as commander of the Confederate Army of North Virginia, Lee represented military endeavour rather than a political struggle to uphold human bondage.

This has made Lee a powerful symbol of the Confederacy. He allowed white southerners to ignore the central role of slavery in the war. They could forget that the southern states seceded in order to uphold slavery and that their defeat meant freedom to millions of enslaved people. There was no space for black memories of emancipation in the south’s public spaces. Confederates were white and their monuments were celebrations of whiteness.

Lee is one of the most frequent figures to be memorialised in statues, aside from the common soldier. In 2016, the Southern Poverty Law Center catalogued all publicly supported spaces dedicated to the Confederacy, finding 203 examples named for Robert E. Lee. Streets, highways, counties, cities, parks, monuments and 52 public schools are named for the Confederate general. Up until 2015, Lee’s birthday was officially marked in five states.

The same year as Lee’s statue appeared in Charlottesville, Virginia passed laws which strengthened definitions of who was “colored” and who was “white”, and which reinforced the law prohibiting interracial marriage. Then, two years later, the state passed a law to enforce racial segregation in places of public entertainment.

The monument to Lee served the same purpose as the legislation – to remind African Americans of their perceived place and inferiority. White nationalists gathered to protect the statue in 2017 because they wanted to celebrate its message. Like the original creators and supporters of the Lee monument, they sought to celebrate a white supremacist vision not just of the past, but of the present.

Jenny Woodley, Lecturer in Modern American History, Nottingham Trent University

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

Striking in al-Ándalus: why Islamic State attacked Spain

Spain plays a relatively inconsequential role in the fight against Islamic State.
Reuters/Sergio Perez

Despite its (relatively) low body count and primitive execution, Thursday’s terrorist attack in Barcelona shocked many local and international onlookers. The Islamic State (IS) group was quick to claim responsibility for the attack, in which a van was deliberately driven into pedestrians on Barcelona’s famed Las Ramblas strip. At least 13 people are dead, and around 100 have been left injured.

The location and targeting of the attack deviates from IS’s previous efforts. These have typically focused on punishing countries directly involved in military operations against it in Syria and Iraq.

But how reliable are its claims of responsibility? And why was Spain chosen, given its relatively inconsequential role in the fight against IS?

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Further reading: Barcelona attack: a long war against Islamic terrorism is our reality

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The validity of IS’s claims

Verifying the culpability of terror attacks can traditionally be a tricky affair. Given that organisations that engage in terrorism are doing so from a position of weakness, there is always an incentive to lie in order to bolster mystique and inflate the image of threat.

But in this regard, IS seems to differ from previous groups. It has typically been reliably truthful in what it claims to have been its actions.

One Australian example of this can be found in the 2014 Lindt Cafe siege. The perpetrator, Man Haron Monis, proclaimed he was acting under IS auspices. But despite this declaration, and the potential propaganda victory it could bring, IS resisted such advances and distanced itself from the incident.

While IS would go on to posthumously praise Monis’ actions, it never made any explicit claims to having organised or directed them. No pre-existing relationship was found in the subsequent inquest.

This incident, along with many others, seems to indicate that while IS claims a butcher’s bill of heinous activities, it doesn’t tend to overtly lie about them.

Such a policy, while initially appearing counter-intuitive, maintains IS’s perception as a trustworthy source of information. This is particularly important in recruitment efforts, and makes it difficult for governments to challenge the IS’s claims in counter-propaganda.

For IS, maintaining a twisted sense of chivalrous virtue remains paramount.

Spain and the clash of civilisations

The Barcelona attack also reflects IS’s view of the world as a civilisational clash.

Described as a “reluctant partner” in the anti-IS coalition, Spain has resisted entreaties to join military efforts. Instead, it has opted for what it sees as a less risky role – providing logistical aid and training to local Iraqi forces, as well as preventing homegrown attempts to support IS abroad.

Spain’s limited role in the fight, particularly in contrast to other terror victims such as France and the US, might lead one to expect it to be relatively low on IS’s hit list.

But in terms of IS’s conflict narrative, Spain represents just another manifestation of a hostile Western civilisation in a state of war against the Islamic community. This leaves it more than open for reprisals.

At a spiritual level, Spain also holds a special place in IS’s mythology. Once a part of the Islamic empire, al-Ándalus, as it is known in Arabic, is seen by many IS ideologues as a natural territorial part of the end-state caliphate and currently under direct occupation by infidels.

Shock and bore

Terrorist reprisals like this attack are likely to intensify temporarily against Western targets throughout Europe and further abroad over the coming months and years, as the IS is systematically deconstructed on its home turf in Iraq and Syria.

IS remains heavily dependant on an image of defiant dynamism and a commitment to challenge the international status quo, which it claims subjugates the chosen community. As its ability to function as a “state” continues to decline, it will increasingly seek to maintain such a mystique through acts of spite against those that have prevented it from achieving its goal of a “caliphate”.

Despite a likely future increase in terrorist attacks, IS also risks a growing public disinterest and apathy toward its activities.

As one commentator has written, the banality and nontheatrical nature of IS’s approach to terrorism – particularly in contrast to al-Qaeda’s keen eye for spectacular symbology – has left many onlookers less than impressed and far from terrified.

Ben Rich, Lecturer in International Relations and Security Studies, Curtin University

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

Hangberg residents protest for better living conditions

Demonstration started when community learnt that about R100 million was being spent on nearby informal settlement

Text by Sune Payne. Photos by Ashraf Hendricks.
18 August 2017

Residents of Hangberg in Hout Bay blocked Harbour Road on Friday.

Residents of Hangberg in Hout Bay protested blocked Harbour Road on Friday with burning rubble. Police at one point fired two stun grenades to disperse a small offshoot of protesters who were blocking one side of the road. Residents screamed angrily in response.

Claudine Adams, who lives in Hangberg, said the protests started after people learnt at a community meeting on Thursday night that the City of Cape Town would be spending about R100 million upgrading the nearby Imizamo Yethu informal settlement. “We the women of Hangberg decided at that point that we would strike today,” Adams said.

Anna Strauss has been living in Hangberg for 42 years. She says she lives in a low quality house that she shares with eight other people. “We have no electricity and have to use an outside toilet. During the cold, the houses are so cold that it seems like there’s water dripping from the walls,” she said.

Hangberg residents explain the community’s concerns to their councillors.

Protesters said that they want title deeds, proper housing with electricity and the removal of community leaders who they believe do not communicate the City’s plans properly with them. Kevin Davids, Hangberg Informal Development Area Chairman, said: “There’s a lot of promises made by the City that were not met.” He said rental flats by the City are not affordable for pensioners and disabled people.

The protesters wanted to see Mayor Patricia de Lille, but were instead addressed by Hout Bay Councillor Roberto Quintas and PR Councillor Bheki Hadebe. A handful of protesters got into a car and said they were going to the mayor’s office. The protest then dispersed in the early afternoon.
Quintas told GroundUp: “I am aware of the community’s grievances.” He said that when he met them last week, he told them that they needed to prepare a presentation on the issues they want addressed. He said that another meeting with residents would be held in mid-September.

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Published originally on GroundUp .

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False start to Parliament’s state capture probe

“The key thing here is that we need to get the money back as soon as possible”

By Moira Levy and Sune Payne
17 August 2017

Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

When exactly is Parliament’s own version of a probe into state capture going to leave the starting blocks? Wednesday’s meeting of the Committee on State Enterprises was yet another false start. Billed as a probe into Eskom, it was underwhelming.

Most of the time was taken up with a convoluted discussion on who should be permitted to serve as evidence leader for this inquiry and who gets to guide proceedings and provide technical support to the Committee.

Could this be a delaying tactic, or is it a way of ensuring that hearings are too boring to draw any public interest?

Committee members appeared keen to get going, with comments reminiscent of the “Pay back the money” chants we have heard in Parliament before.

Committee member Steve Swart from the ACDP said, “The key thing here is that we need to get the money back as soon as possible” and Narend Singh of the IFP wanted to urgently get to the bottom of corruption within State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) because that amounts to “robbing hard-earned taxpayers” and “stealing our money”.

The DA’s Natasha Mazzone said an inquiry into state capture was needed because it affects the economy and everyone in South Africa. SOEs lie at the heart of the South African economy she said. “These companies affect the everyday lives of South Africans.”

It is unusual to speedily reach consensus in any multi-party committee, but this one — made up of four committees — immediately agreed on one matter: it wants money that has been lost to corruption and state capture to be repaid, and soon.

That’s about all that could be agreed on, aside from the fact that another meeting will be scheduled soon. Even the parliamentary legal staff seemed confused about who will lead proceedings as they felt this could compromise MPs’ oversight powers when the inquiry gets underway.

The EFF’s Floyd Shivambu wanted to know where the National Prosecuting Authority was, and why it was not represented at the meeting.

A committee chairperson has still to be appointed and at its earlier preparatory meeting it became clear that there was no qualified evidence leader to assist the committee. That led opposition leader John Steenhuisen to point out that an investigation of this nature will require an advocate experienced in litigation. He suggested that Parliament take on an advocate from outside if it cannot source one employed by Parliament.

Steenhuisen said at the time that the committee will need technical experts, researchers and an extensive infrastructure. “Parliament has a constitutional duty to investigate the damning state capture evidence. In order to properly fulfil that duty‚ parliamentary committees need to be properly resourced to handle such in-depth investigations.”

The concern of under-resourcing was exactly why the DA had argued strongly and lobbied for the formation of a single all-encompassing ad hoc committee to investigate state capture‚ he added.

Lack of resources was also identified as a problem by the acting committee chairperson, Zukiswa Rantho. Speaking to GroundUp/Notes from the House she said, “This Committee has [been given] the same resources as any other committee of Parliament, but because we have this huge job we need more resources. We need experts, people who deal with finances, people who deal with technical issues of law that we as parliamentarians don’t know.”

Rantho explained that the inquiry by the committee would look at the issues raised in the leaked Gupta emails that provided detailed evidence of state capture. It will be investigating big SOEs, particularly Eskom, but also Denel and Transnet. “SOEs are very big companies in South Africa and they deal with big budgets [from] government. [For example,] Eskom is a huge company that deals with huge amounts of money, which is taxpayers’ money. Therefore it is very important for South Africans to know what is happening with this committee,” she said.

Former public protector Thuli Madonsela proposed a judicial commission of inquiry into the extent and detail of how the state is being undermined when she released her State of Capture report in October 2016. But her proposal for the Chief Justice to appoint a retired judge to head this commission was rejected by President Zuma, who also said he was never given an opportunity to respond. He has taken the matter to court. No further action can be taken until the legal process has run its course.

Civil society, meanwhile, got on with its own investigations. The South African Council of Churches, the State Research Capacity Project and the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse have released their own findings. Government’s response has been that anyone with knowledge of wrong-doing should lay criminal charges.

Parliament’s unique response came in the form of a written instruction, from the House Chairperson of Committees, Mr Cedric Frolick, for the Home Affairs, Mineral Resources, Public Enterprises and Transport Portfolio Committees to engage with the allegations “within the parameters of the Assembly Rules governing the business of committees and consistent with the constitutionally enshrined oversight function of Parliament”.

In the light of the accusations involving a number of ministers he wrote to the chairpersons to request “immediate engagement with the concerned ministers to ensure that Parliament gets to the bottom of the allegations”. No specific deadline was set for submission of findings of their investigations, but Frolick requested that the four committees report their recommendations to the House urgently.

Once the committees have done a thorough investigation they will make recommendations that could have either civil or criminal implications for those found to be implicated.

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Published originally on GroundUp .

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