Wilgeheuwel Hospital is atrocious.

At 23:00 this evening I took my son in law to the emergency room at Wilgeheuwel hospital. The emergency room has a “Do not enter” sign on it.

After figuring out how to get in, the admitting staff had no idea what I was talking about when describing the problem. The condition was a ruptured ulcer on his e***lottis which has resulted in toxic discharge draining into his ear through the Eustachian tube as well as into his stomach resulting in nausea.

The admitting person had no idea what I was talking about. When I tried to use simpler language he then decided it was a throat problem therefore COVID and therefore dispatched him to the COVID ward.

My daughter had to push him in a wheelchair to the ward herself, along a narrow brick paved pathway down the side of the hospital which has no lighting. Just outside the ward a “nurse” stopped us to fill in a form in the dark. She didn’t know what any medicines were and clearly hadn’t heard of penicillin when we got to the allergy part. I had to use my cell phone torch to shine a light on the form so she could see what she was doing!

The service, assistance, care and interest of the staff was nothing short of disgusting. Once he was inside the COVID ward we couldn’t get in to see him, (understandably), but nobody can to tell us anything. The lady in a bed in the doorway was the most helpful of anybody. (Yes her bed was in the passage/doorway leading from outside into the ward!!