The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Mpumalanga has written to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) asking them to investigate inhumane conditions at the maternity ward of Rob Ferreira Hospital.
According to information and pictures gathered by the DA, toilets at the maternity ward of Rob Ferreira, one of the biggest hospitals in Mpumalanga, are not working and patients must bring their own bedsheets and pillows. How can it be allowed that the toilets in a maternity ward are not working? Mothers must leave their babies to go find a toilet somewhere in the hospital!
Heavily pregnant patients are also forced to walk to casualties to open and collect files while visibly in labour. The DA wants to know why files are not kept at the maternity ward to avoid a situation where these pregnant women could give birth while on the way to casualties to open files.
This particular hospital received funding for the new maternity ward which was completed around 2014.
Currently there is not enough beds in the maternity ward and patients are given plain mattresses with nothing, no linen, no sheets, no pillows, and no blankets. They sleep on the floor.
The maternity ward at Rob Ferreira Hospital is crumbling and taking the joy of giving birth away from parents who should be excited about meeting their newly born babies that they have been waiting anxiously for – for nine months.
On Tuesday this week, the DA tabled a motion at the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature asking that the Health Portfolio Committee to conduct an oversight at Rob Ferreira Hospital, and to come back and report to the House on their recommendations for immediate and long-term solutions to this problem. The ANC voted against the DA’s Motion.
The DA has since written to the SAHRC asking them to intervene and investigate the possible human rights violation at the maternity ward of the hospital.