Hospital Experiences
Hearing Patients' Stories
Phelisa Dlangamandla
Gugulethu resident
Phelisa Dlangamandla, a Gugulethu resident, spoke to the lengths that people in Gugulethu go for treatment and to avoid the conditions of the KTC Day Hospital. Due to the overcrowding and long waiting period, Phelisa travels very far to another clinic to receive treatment when she needs medical care. She uses her friend’s address as her own to be zoned to a different area. She is not alone: many other people in her community use different addresses to access other clinics that they are not geographically zoned for. She explains that the primary care centers are open from 9am-4pm, but after-hours, only the maternity and trauma units remain open. Phelisa emphasizes how many people try to “run away” from the KTC Day Hospital. She knows a man who went to the KTC Day Hospital, but doctors could not diagnose his symptoms. When he went to a private hospital, he found out that he had colon cancer. The KTC hospital was unable to detect the cancer due to its lack of proper diagnostic and imaging equipment.
Lindiwe Mvandaba
Crossroads resident
Lindiwe Mvandaba, a resident of Crossroads, is upset with the overcrowding at the KTC Day Hospital. Crossroads is a populous neighborhood that boarders Gugulethu. “The problem is the space,” she says, which is unsurprising, as there are more than 15 areas that depend on the Day Hospital. Once, when she accompanied her laboring sister in the middle of the night, she was not allowed to enter with her sibling, because KTC did not have enough space for non-patients. At this point, her transport had left, forcing her to wait for two hours to get transport back home. Lindiwe explains how people accompanying the patients in the maternity ward generally have to wait outside, which is very unsafe. Lindiwe’s concerns are related to the increased number of hijackings and attacks which occur outside of the hospital, especially in the wintertime. That is not the only unfortunate situation Lindiwe experienced as a result of KTC’s space problem. Once, she had to rush her husband to the trauma unit in the middle of the night because of his severe stomach pain, but he was not “fast-tracked” due to his lack of visible injury, like a stab or gunshot wound. Space limitations meant some patients had to be prioritized ("fast-tracked") over others. He was only admitted after vomiting blood, and Lindiwe’s mother-in-law had to beg the healthcare workers to take care of him.
Khungelwa Cosiko
Gugulethu Resident
Khungelwa Cosiko, a woman living in Gugulethu, recalls her bad experiences at the KTC Day Hospital. She explains that the hospital is only accessible to her when she can afford transit fares, because it is a 45 minute walk from her home. For others, the walk can take up to two hours. Her main complaint with the facility is its lack of space. During one of her experiences at the hospital, she remembers being one of seven patients visiting the center with nebulizer needs. Since there were only five chairs, her nebulizer treatment was administered while she was standing up, which was physically taxing. During another one of her appointments, the cramped facility meant that she could see the bleeding, stabbed patients of the trauma ward. “It is terrible to see people shot and stabbed at such close proximity,” she says. The KTC Day Hospital is the only nearby center with a 24-hour trauma ward, so it often overflows, leaving vulnerable patients without privacy. The Midwife Obstetric Unit (MOU) also is ill-equipped to deal with its demand. Sometimes, Khungelwa notes, women in labor are forced to sleep on the ground, spending the night on a makeshift bed made only of blankets.
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