Shortage of staff no excuse for ill-treatment of patients at Helen Joseph, says Prof Madhi

Poor infrastructure and lack of staff does not excuse health workers from extending their services to vulnerable patients. 

Prof Shabir Madhi, from the health and science faculty at the University of the Witwatersrand, said they are fully aware of the poor infrastructure and the shortage of healthcare workers at most health facilities in Gauteng. He said despite this, they are fully committed to ensuring that they train students to be compassionate and maintain the dignity of all patients when engaging with them.  

Madhi’s sentiments comes after a video recorded by former broadcaster Tom London is doing the rounds on social media, in which he complains about lack of care patients are subjected to at the Helen Joseph Hospital in Auckland Park, Johannesburg, where he was hospitalised.

In the six-minute video, London shows non-functioning equipment, poor infrastructure and also alleges a patient died without being attended to for hours. He also complains about lack of compassion by health workers towards their patients. 

Madhi acknowledged that staff are often stretched to capacity to provide optimal healthcare, coupled with managing rotation (especially interns) and other administrative challenges. “[But] this does not excuse us from extending professional healthcare services to vulnerable patients,” said Madhi.