[imagesource:creativecommon]

All hell broke loose on Saturday when local broadcaster Tom London posted a series of videos to his Facebook account in which he tears into his experience at Helen Joseph Hospital.

London was admitted to Helen Joseph after being unable to breathe due to a severe lung infection.

Labelling it the “Helen Joseph Circus Hospital”, the 8-minute video features him pointing out the horrible conditions and the awful way doctors treat patients at the hospital.

He claimed that there were no restrooms for him to use when he arrived at the hospital, which led to him “lying in my own faeces for a day” before he made such “a fuss” at the facility and was then moved to a different ward.

“No doctor here calls you by name. Every doctor here assumes you [are] a hobo (homeless person) that comes off the street. The doctors here are behaving like the patients are their little experiments. I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life.”

London also claimed the patient across from his bed had died and lay there for 20 minutes before anyone attended to him.

“He’s dead. He died 20 minutes ago, he’s lying there in that bed, he’s dead, he’s dead. The doctors here, you give doctors a bad name, all of you. Despicable human beings.”

Sounds and looks pretty grim. Too bad it took a viral video for the Gauteng Health Department to launch an investigation into allegations. They did issue a statement though, referencing their provincial campaign called “I Serve with A Smile” – which is meant to address some of the issues London raised.

MEDIA STATEMENT || GAUTENG HEALTH PROBE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST ONE OF ITS HOSPITALS REPORTED BY A PATIENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA pic.twitter.com/yOWN3kQVJk

— Gauteng Health (@GautengHealth) September 8, 2024

Let’s hope whoever got the refurbishing tender watches the video. Perhaps the doctors and nurses should too.

[source:capetalk]