The North West’s Joe Morolong Memorial Hospital has been forced to turn away new patients because of water shortages in the health facilities caused by a lack of water supply from the Naledi Local Municipality.
The Health Department MEC, Madoda Sambatha, said the hospital is highly affected and the number of patients at the hospital has been reduced and this has forced the department to use water tankers to supply water.
“The hospital is affected by the shortage of water at the Naledi Local Municipality, so we have been tankering for the past two weeks. But what we have instructed the hospital and the provincial office to do is to do a process of projecting where we should in future send patients and remove the ones that we have.
“So that we don’t have a situation where infection controls will haunt us because we are delivering services without water.
“Availability of water to healthcare is a primary source, so because of this there is no guarantee of availability. We have decided to reduce the number of patients that are available there.
“And to also stop admitting new patients as a basis to decide on a management plan for the ones that are already admitted,” Sambatha said, adding that referrals will also depend on the type of treatment required.
“Patients need medical attention from the department of health not necessarily at the Joe Morolong hospital. So if we reduce admission in Joe Morolong because there is no water, plans have been made as to who admits, and which type of patients.
“As we speak the Christiana Hospital burned down, and we are doing management of patients within the district, sub-district, and then other facilities in the province.
“The same is going to be done here. It is not going to affect patients but it may affect family members in terms of where their patients are admitted instead of Joe Morolong. There should never be patients where there is no supply of water even on a daily basis.
“If a patient is from a community health centre and referred to a service in Joe Morolong, the first level is the district hospitals that we have in the sub-district.
“If it is a higher level of referral, it goes out of the district because it must either come to Mahikeng or go to Klerksdorp. But all this is not new.
“The same patients in Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati ,whenever it’s a tertiary referral, go to Klerksdorp Tshepong on a daily basis. So this is just a temporary arrangement because we don’t have water,” he said.
