Jeanette Mlombo says that corruption and carelessness are responsible for the death of her son
Suspected Covid-19 patients were left in an open tent, in temperatures below zero, outside a South African hospital during the mid-winter peak of the pandemic, which led to “many” people dying from suspected hypothermia, according to an exclusive investigation by BBC News.
The revelations arose when the South African government recognized and condemned widespread corruption and mismanagement during its response to the pandemic.
“Freezing in that tent. As soon as night falls, it’s awful, you can take the patients down. Hypothermia is one of the leading causes of death here. Especially in that tent,” said a doctor in Sebokeng. Hospital – a whistleblower who spoke to us on condition of anonymity.
The doctor said 14 people had died in the tent over one 48-hour period – though not all from hypothermia.
‘Disorganized havoc’
“We are tired and sad and scared of our patients. I wonder how many people have to die unnecessarily to be adequately examined,” she said.
The tent at Sebokeng Hospital was erected in the parking lot
The doctor described “horrific” scenes in the tent of big brand – erected in the parking lot and used by the hospital as an easy triage and waiting room – over the course of several cold and hectic weeks in July, with elderly patients collapsing after ‘ t they were left for two days or more without sanitation, food or adequate heating.
She said sick people were forced to follow three small electric heaters that often break.
“I felt very stressed, angry, [and] hopeless. The lack of resources in that tent is an absolute joke … disorganized destruction.
“We have no drugs. No ventilation equipment. There was PPE all over the place waiting to infect more people,” said the doctor, who complained that a number of medical staff had caught the virus as a result of the circumstances. .
“It’s corruption and carelessness,” said Jeanette Mlombo, whose son, Martin, died at Sebokeng Hospital last month at the age of 30.
She said he had not been tested for Covid-19 and had initially complained of swollen legs, but had remained in the tent for a total of 12 hours.
“It was freezing. He was hungry. He said, ‘I slept here all night without a single blanket. I’ll die. Nobody cares about me,'” Mlombo said.
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Leaking reports have revealed that the decision to use tents provoked an angry backlog of experts in the provincial health department.
Internal conversations about a WhatsApp group, seen by the BBC, show that medical advisers are urging management not to use the tents, precisely because of the risk to patients.
Some read:
- “Tents are very cold at the moment.”
- “I have never been a proponent of tents … I find that making our people in cold tents inhuman.”
- “Tents are a no-go area for me.”
Hospital ‘well contained’
Responding to the whistleblower’s allegations about Sebokeng Hospital, Gauteng Department of Health spokeswoman Kwara Kekana rejected the suggestion that “many” people had died from the cold, and wrote in an email that “death statistics based on the hospital report do not reflect deaths diagnosed by hypothermia”.
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The spokeswoman also denied claims of a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and a lack of proper and dull areas, parts of documents showing in the hospital the supplies of hand tools, coats and other relevant equipment.
In recent weeks, the situation at Sebokeng has reportedly improved significantly, in part due to steps taken by management, but also, it seems, as the number of infected cases has started to drop dramatically.
Overall, South Africa seems to be thwarting the first emergence of the pandemic with some success.
Some provinces and hospitals were widely praised for their response.
The government’s early and aggressive lockdown regime has also won praise – as has fierce criticism from some quarters.
‘Hyenas benefit’
But the pandemic has also exposed deep institutional weaknesses, including a widespread culture of corruption and apparent nepotism, and the dangers of a system of “cadre deployment” that major departments have seen led by all incompetent political proponents of the ruling African National Congress (ANC)).
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During the pandemic, prices for some surgical masks in South Africa were marked with 900%
President Cyril Ramaphosa angrily condemned corruption, citing examples of price increases of 900%, and lashing out at “hyenas” trying to profit from disaster.
A number of senior officials and ministers have been criticized for cases where their relatives have secured large contracts from the government.
South African authorities said they were now investigating government departments’ irregularities in 5 billion rand ($ 290m; £ 220m) bids for coronavirus bids.
The whistleblower at Sebokeng told us that she and other staff had complained several times about conditions, and asked how special Covid-19 aids were paid for.
“We have not seen that money. I know management is aware of our craving. We have tried several times as doctors and nurses to ask management where the money is allocated,” the doctor said.
“Are we going to get more staff, more resources? And we are not really getting answers, and that is devastating for us.”
Contracts are being investigated
The hospital’s communications department rejected our request for an interview, saying all Covid-19 questions should be directed to the provincial health department.
In response to these complaints raised by the medics, Ms Kekana said the hospital held regular staff meetings, and had a compliance officer and a dedicated team to ensure that standards were met.
Gauteng’s local government minister of health in the province, Bandile Masuku, was recently forced to resign on charges of corruption against him. Mr. Masuku denied the allegations, saying he was not involved in, nor did he influence, the department’s procurement processes.
Researchers are investigating more than 100 Covid-19-related contracts in the province.
“This pandemic has exposed many of the flaws of our system. But hopefully we can do something about it,” the whistleblower said.
“We need to learn from this pandemic so that we are better equipped to treat other diseases in the future.”
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- GLOBAL SPREAD: Tracking the Pandemic
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