Traumatic ill treatment at Ward 13 and 10, Cecelia Makhiwane Hospital Mdantsane EC

I don't even know where to start. The Psychiatric ward at this hospital needs serious attention and the Department of Health Eastern Cape particularly Buffalo city doesn't seem to be bothered a bit with the patient's basic human rights. First, on the 14th of Septmber 2021, with the help of the Police from Quigney East London we managed to heave a patient taken in as she was not mentally well (to put it lightly). When we arrived we had to start at ward 13 where we waited for hours to get tests done before the patient could be admitted into ward 10 where the Psyc patients are kept. Ward 13 is like a reception area where everyone is received/welcomed, there are no beds, no secluded areas to keep problematic and violent patients in so that they are away from the public and other patients, basically everyone waits in one place. Being in that place broke my heart, it was extremely traumatic and not just for me but for parents, siblings, caretakers who had come patients to get help for their loved ones and extremely traumatic to other patients too who were in waiting. For example on that day (14th Sep 2021) two patients, including the one I came with were totally and terribly uncontrollable. Doctors and nurses had to stop what they were doing and try to control the situation, S.O's had to come in numbers to hold/control one patient while the other is causing distress and chaos. There were no beds to strap them down as this is a reception area therefore the patients were a spectacle for everyone to watch and either cry or laugh, the patent's dignities went down the drain, you can imagine clothes getting st********** in the fight to restrain them from fighting or running away and all this, a lekker big movie.

Today after the patient had been admitted for about a week, my mother was called in to get a doctor's report on the patient and when the patient arrived in the meeting their hand was swollen and the gown they were wearing was filth dirty. When my mother enquired about the hand after noticing the swelling and BITE mark, she was told that the patient was beaten by one of the guards while she was physically fighting with another guard. My biggest concern on today's issue is why hire individuals who are clearly not capable of controlling psychiatric patients? What other ill treatment goes on in that ward that we are not aware of? Why is the dignity of patients and their human rights not regarded? To the Department of Health, the Management of Cecelia Makhiwane Hospital, do you think this is fair treatment? Or maybe I also belong there? As we speak my mother cannot even sleep due to the trauma resulting from what she witnessed that day, she has to eadaches/migraines. Today she couldn't even drive nor eat after seeing what she saw today at the hospital, I'm scared for my mother's life. Niyasibulala Cecelia Makhiwantake stress sedatives to sleep and stop thinking a lot, she has constant he nge stress.