Kimberly – Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital in Kimberly teamed up with Gift of the Givers to assist in completing a backlog of surgeries. The Gift of the Givers team consisted of a team of theatre nurses and anaesthetists from Cape Town. The operations took place over the weekend.
Patients with critical conditions have been left waiting for several weeks to have surgery. The delay is a result of the hospital not having enough theatre staff. Dr Ahmed Bhyat, Head of Surgery at Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital, explained the situation was bad before Covid and only worsened after.
“This goes back a few good months if not years. There has been a shortage of anaesthetists and nurses. We used to have four lists a week to operate which cut down to one list a week and sometimes one list in two weeks. Since Covid the numbers have just been increasing. We’ve had patients in the ward for up to four months waiting for operations. I’m talking about cancer and big operations.”
Working with Gift of the Givers cannot be the norm
Although the collaboration between the hospital and Gift of the Givers was a success and no doubt a good thing, Bhyat believes it shouldn’t be this way. Government hospitals should have the tools and capabilities to do this kind of work regularly. They should not have to rely on Gift of the Givers.
“I appeal to the Department of Health, provincial and national, to let us work together. We need to fix up this broken terrain. A lot of people are ready to help and to assist. My biggest fear is that if we carry on like this, we’re taking away the burden from the state. The burden the state has got to see to, they’re getting the funding, but the money is going to the wrong person in the wrong places. We need to put our resources back into the hospitals.”
A culture of dedication, discipline and better work proficiency needs to come back to the medical field. These responsibilities cannot be left up to Gift of the Givers and other organisations. The government has to do its job.
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Asking for Gift of the Givers for help
As the situation worsened, Bhyat saw patients who, unfortunately, passed on while waiting for surgery. For him and his team to walk into the patient’s room and not be able to give them an answer took a mental toll on them. This prompted Bhyat to connect with the Gift of the Givers.
“In desperation I phoned [Dr] Imtiaz and said I need help. What is amazing is that within minutes after Imtiaz put up the request on the group, we had responses from a wide range of professionals willing to come down. Eventually I had to say sorry I just need anaesthetists and I need nurses. Within one week it was arranged.”
How it all came together
A group of nurses came down on Thursday and went to the hospital. After visiting the hospital, a plan was drawn up and agreed upon for the following day. Upon arrival on the scheduled day the anaesthetists immediately went to work. Everything was done in a short window and went off smoothly.
“We started at eight o’clock Friday morning. We ran two theatres and worked up to nine o’clock that evening. Saturday again we started at eight and we worked right through till about eight o’clock. Sunday once again we started at 8 o’clock and the anaesthetists had to leave by three o’clock. In that time, we did 72 procedures. A procedure takes about an hour so that’s about 72 hours of operating. It’s a lot of work.”
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What is next for the hospital
The operations that took place over the weekend, as helpful as it was, will not solve the problem for the hospital. The beds are already being filled up again and there are still many more patients waiting for surgery. The only way forward is to fix up the hospital and move from there.
“At the end of this week or next week we’ll be back to square one again … The bottom line is we need to fix our hospital. Unless the politicians and the guys at the top come to the party, we’re not going to win.”
One thing the hospital doesn’t have to worry about is aftercare. The patients are well looked after when they come back in for check-ups. According to Bhyat, the CEO of the hospital is trying to organise another marathon surgery for a whole week and for all surgery disciplines, not just major surgery. However, he is unsure when it will take place.
Bhyat hopes this marathon surgery will show his fellow colleagues that where there is a will, there is a way. This should be a lesson of inspiration and hope for those in the medical field who may have given up.
