Sunday Tribune

HOSPITAL’S PLANS IRK RESIDENTS

CHARMAINE MAZIBUKO charmaine.mazibuko@inl.co.za

RESIDENTS in Ballito have expressed their disappointment at the closing of the maternity unit at the private Netcare Alberlito Hospital.

Catherine van Zuydam, a resident, said while mental health care was a huge concern, she failed to understand how it would be more profitable for the hospital to shut down an entire section of the hospital for mental health services.

Sara Nayager, regional manager of Netcare’s KZN hospital division, said it was Netcare’s intention to create an 80-bed mental health service for adolescents and adults in the space that the current maternity, neonatal and paediatric units occupied.

The hospital claimed that this service was in short supply in both the province and the country.

“I’m appalled that you use this as your excuse to the community which has supported you. My heart breaks for the specialist doctors affected. They have served the hospital and the community during Covid-19, during looting, and every other day in between.

“They have stood firm in providing the health care that every patient deserves, even at the risk of their own lives. When a private health-care facility slams its doors in the face of women and children, what’s next, who’s next?,” said Van Zuydam.

Another resident, Tracey Botha, said the hospital’s decision meant that if she had to rush to Alberlito with an abruption at 29 weeks, there would be no gynae on call.

“So that means I will be seen and given a C-section by a doctor who is unqualified as there will be no gynae on call. I deliver a premature infant in a facility that does not have a neonatal ward. (There is a) good chance (that) one or both of us die,” said Botha.

Resident Samantha Fawkes said this was “the most disappointing announcement. How can you not serve the most important members of our community, our children?

“Alberlito has built a reputation on the basis of offering excellent obstetric and paediatric services.

“(It’s) sickening that inaccurate stats have been used to make this decision. Ballito is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. This decision makes zero sense,” said Fawkes.

Another resident, Samantha Johannes, said the announcement was devastating and disrespectful to the community and the hard-working specialists who had made a big difference to their lives.

“It is disgrace from Netcare Alberlito Hospital and Netcare as a whole. How can they call themselves a hospital if they offer no care for children and women? It’s discrimination. The ‘care’ in Netcare care is lost,” said Johannes.

A petition by residents to keep the maternity unit open has been created on the Change.org website, and already has more than 15 000 signatures.

A PRIVATE hospital in Ballito will be phasing out its maternity ward in January to make way for a mental health facility, owing to the low number of deliveries recorded there over the years.

The Netcare Alberlito Hospital has confirmed that its maternity, neonatal and paediatric units on the second floor of the hospital will be replaced with mental health services for adolescents and adults – a move that has led to an outcry from the public and a women’s health body.

While the number of babies born at Alberlito was disputed by the hospital, the South African Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (SASOG) recorded 327 births in the past year, or about 27 births per month.

Sara Nayager, regional manager of Netcare’s KZN hospital division, said an 80-bed mental health service for adolescents and adults would be created in the space that the current maternity, neonatal and paediatric units occupied.

“The national Department of Health (DOH) records that more than 6.5 million people in South Africa were in need of professional mental health intervention, of which almost 1.3 million require care for severe psychiatric conditions. Replacing the maternity, neonatal and overnight paediatric services, for which there is such low demand, with mental healthcare services will provide a solution for

the hospital’s overall sustainability, making it possible for the hospital to continue offering a host of other specialised medical and surgical services, and protect the jobs of our staff members,” said Nayager.

She said there was a dwindling demand for the overnight paediatric, neonatal and obstetric facilities in the past 10 years.

The SASOG expressed shock at the announcement. Gynaecologists and paediatric doctors at the hospital have been given notice that their lease won’t be renewed in January and they must leave the premises by April.

The SASOG president Dr Haynes van der Merwe complained that no

formal communication about the decision was granted to the affected doctors.

“It’s very disappointing how the hospital has decided to go about this. We don’t dispute that mental illness is an important issue but we feel other solutions could have been viable, like reducing bed occupancy at the maternity unit than totally wanting to shut it down. Some of the doctors have worked for many years at the hospital, while another doctor moved from Johannesburg to KZN with their family just last year,” said Van der Merwe.

He said the medical specialists were dedicated to the Ballito community.

“We believe that children and pregnant

women should always have access to community-based health care. This decision will affect the children and pregnant women who live in Ballito and will have a negative impact on the livelihood of most of these clinicians and their staff,” said Van der Merwe.

However, Nayager said community well-being was considered when the decision was made.

She said the hospital would still have limited paediatric overnight beds and in the unusual event that more children required overnight hospital care than the hospital could accommodate, there was provision for the patients to be transferred to the closest facility most appropriate for their specific needs.

“The lower paediatric admissions in our facilities reflect global trends towards treating children on an outpatient basis wherever possible and speaks to ethical paediatric practice as opposed to over-servicing. Netcare has therefore been subsidising these unsustainable units for years to keep the hospital afloat and to continue providing health care at this facility.”

Nayager added that after many attempts to make these units more sustainable over the years, including discussions with doctors and other stakeholders, the hospital was forced to consider the impact that this scenario has had on the overall sustainability of the hospital, which she claimed, had run at a loss over many years. She said this was due partly to under-performing and resource-intensive units.

Nayager said affected specialists had either been offered practising privileges at other Netcare facilities, where Netcare has seen a demand for such services, or alternative options had been discussed.

“We’ll also do our utmost to ensure alternative consulting rooms for those specialists affected in office spaces close to the hospital.”

She said patients could access these specialised services at other health-care facilities, like the Netcare umhlanga Hospital, which was 30km from the Netcare Alberlito Hospital.

The other available hospital where babies could be delivered was the Mediclinic Victoria Hospital in Tongaat, which was 12km away from Ballito.

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2022-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

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