Worst Hospital and Worst Ward - Ward H

To Whom It May Concern,

On the 1st August, I was admitted to Flora Hospital for a complication I had, by my gynaecologist Dr Bok McMinn. Casualties was super friendly and helpful as usual. I stayed in casualties, from 10:30am to 19:00pm, but that was due to the tests and scans they had to run. I was then moved to my room, in Ward H, room 3. Upon my arrival, the ward itself, was ridiculously cold, and I was later advised that the ward had an aircon issue and that the ward was still under warranty. My doctor, Dr Bok MacMinn, before knocking off that night, came to my room, to check on me, and she instructed the nurses to put a heater in my room. Although the was a heater in my room, it was still very cold. Nevertheless, I had two of the best nurses and was well taken care of, until my last day, which was the Friday. The morning of, I was scheduled for a colonoscopy and both my nurses, Sister Olivia and Sister Nondumiso, was done with their shifts for the week and the new shift started that morning. My system was flushed due to the scheduled procedure I had to have, so all I could have was water. From 07:00am the Friday morning, I was not checked on AT ALL. My water was removed from my room, and so was my heater, without asking me if it could be taken! I woke up with pain, and when I asked for something for the pain, I was then told, that they are unable to give me anything for pain, due to the fact that Dr Sibanda wanted me in pain during my procedure, I don’t see how that was relevant, as I was under a mild sedation. By more than one nurse, I was advised that Dr Sibanda’s team will call the ward when they are ready, but at 11:38am, they still had not called the ward for my procedure. My sister then called the ward to find out what is happening, and they couldn’t give her feedback. I was then rushed by one nurse to get my gown on, to get ready for my procedure. Upon arriving at Dr Sibanda’s rooms, I was then made aware that it was up to the nurses in Ward H, to call up and follow up on when they could bring me up, but they didn’t! After my procedure, I was then taken back to my room, but still freezing cold.

This is not the first time that I have had treatment like this from Flora Hospital, and I don’t know why surveys are sent out, because no one ever gets back to you, to apologise. I just feel like the management of Ward H, is not doing anything about these issues and the nurses, and at the end of the day, these nurses have a duty of care towards patients, but this is certainly not the case for this specific ward. It felt like I was more in a prison cell, as opposed to being taken care of. I was in so much pain and if it wasn’t for the two above mentioned nurses, I would have left that hospital in as much pain as I was, but my doctors wanted to do the tests to find out where the pain was coming from.

Needless to say, I would NEVER go back to Flora, aside from seeing my gynaecologist and my little one’s paediatrician, I would NEVER want to be admitted to that hospital again. You guys seriously need to take measures to resolve this issue at Flora, as this is not what we pay medical aid for. We pay so much for medical aid in this country and as everything in this country, the service is also going straight to the dogs!