Akeso Alberton is hell on earth

The Akeso from Hell Branch

This is a complaint about my admission to Alberton Akeso 22-25 March 2021, which I'm reiterating, since Netcare took this post down on social media.

1. Diabetic food had to be brought in by my friends as staff had no idea how to cook for a prediabetic patient. Admin staff shouted at me because of the packaging of the food sent to me by friends (Checkers 60Sixty)

2. My learning disabilities (ADHD, dyslexia and dyscalculia) were not accommodated in classes. I was made to feel like an inconvenience whilst the facilitator kept letting me down promising accessible versions of addiction learning material (PDFs) every day and not supplying them.

3. Nursing staff frequently made significant mistakes issuing medications for the wrong time of day making it impossible to sleep.

4. I have Long COVID-19. I cannot shower without a chair. Every day I was promised one yet none had been provided. I wore the clothing I wore at admission for 4 days, feeling disgusting and degraded. My dignity was violated.

5. I do not feel I can achieve sobriety on the Alberton programme when I can't even hear the facilitator due to hearing loss. No effort was made to address this

6. The GP on duty is transphobic and encouraged a transgender patient who has been on hormone replacement therapy in the form of Depo Testosterone for 4 years to stop their transition. This is a violation of my human rights.

7. My psychiatrist has made radical medication changes without a taper plan, again making my insomnia worse to the point where I barely slept during my admission.

8. The nursing staff performed nearly no recording my blood glucose vitals when I gave them values I recorded prior to meals.They also did not note my oxygen saturation consistently. I have had to do that and record values. In this admission, I've basically been my own nurse.

9. When I exercised my right as a patient to ask for the process to refuse hospital treatment (RHT), the night nurse on duty 24 March 2021 behind the glass nurse's station desk laughed at me. I was later strongly persuaded to be discharged rather than RHT, supposedly to protect the reputation of the hospital.

10. My toilet overflowed. The floor of my room was covered in faeces. Not a priority for staff who took 2 hours to call someone to sort out a hygiene and safety concern.

11. The location of the office of Sr Eva is not wheelchair accessible, thus she had to come to my room.

12. All of these complaints were raised with and ignored by nurses over the duration of my admission calmly, with respect and concern. I had to post some of these complaints on Netcare's Facebook page before any staff member bothered to address them from a managerial level. By then, it was too little, too late. Soon after, Netcare deleted my complaint from their page.