“Alleged negligence at Matatiele Taylor Bequest Hospital has claimed another soul last month leaving people with questions, how long will it take for this hospital to be known as place of death”. An aggrieved woman in Matatiele has called upon on government to act or close down the Taylor Bequest hospital in Matatiele and change its name and purpose to Taylor Bequest tuck shop. Elizabeth Dlamini from Cedarville told The Informer that Taylor Bequest hospital has killed her sister; Madiboseng Kaludi (43), from Cedarville in Eastern Cape. Kaludi was knocked down by a Toyota Quantum minibus and was taken to the Taylor Bequest Hospital in Matatiele on a Friday for admission . According to Dlamini, since her sister was admitted in hospital there was no doctor to attend her since that Friday until Sunday. Dlamini called in the hospital to find out the condition of her sister but was shocked to be told that there was no doctor to attend to her. “I asked why can’t she be transferred to another hospital as I was told that it’s only the doctor who can attend her of which a medical doctor was expected to be available on Monday. My sister stayed in hospital unattended with trauma for two days”, said Dlamini. On Sunday she had to come up with an alternative to look for transport to take her sister from Taylor Bequest Hospital to Kokstad Usher Memorial Hospital in KwaZulu Natal. On arrival “The doctors there did not take even three hours, and they urgently called the paramedics to transfer Kaludi to Edendale hospital saying that the patient was critically injured and suffered a lot of internal bleeding in the head”, said Dlamini. She said the sister was taken to an Intensive Care Unit for about two days. “The doctors there were shocked and were asking how a head injured patient cannot be attended for two days. Tests were conducted and the doctors showed us the scans and it was found out that my sister had fatal head injuries and the blood had reached to her brain. After two days she was transferred to Prince Albert Luthuli hospital where she stayed for two days then died,
Dlamini concluded by saying “the doctors confirmed that had she received the necessary assistance in time she could have survived, but now the amount of time as she was left unattended with such injuries led to her death”. Dlamini was very angry to extent of saying that there is no need for this hospital to exist if the community of Matatiele will continue being traumatised by the negligence of its personnel. Commenting on the matter Eastern Cape Health Spokesperson Olwethu Sicwetsha said the Department will investigate what actually happened to the patient and respond later. In January 2018 The Informer published a story about the hospital titled “Matatiele Taylor Bequest a hospital of death”. It was after the EFF marched and delivered a petition of grievances about the condition of hospital. A conversation between EFF, the board and the management then revealed the hospital situation as being pathetic and pitiful. It was said that the situation is propagated by amongst others the lack of doctors, inability to manage the spread of the disease and the bureaucratic process by Provincial government. The hospital is currently served by two doctors instead of seven, the available doctors are complaining about poor conditions of their accommodation. Wards are also overflowing with patients who are not separated according to their diseases and that makes it easy for (transmitting disease) one disease to spread to others. Even those who are Psychologically or mentally disturbed are mixed with other general patients. It looks like the situation has not changed since then instead its deteriorating
