At 8am on Monday morning the ICU at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital had to be evacuated after the oxygen to the unit was cut by someone who had accessed a locked room that could only be accessed by an electronic card. By 11am on Tuesday morning, Prof ...
At 3am on Monday morning an electronic card was used to access the room where vital pipes providing oxygen to the hospital’s ICU and surgical theatres were housed. Three metres of wiring was cut. It cut off the oxygen supply and medical air supply to the hospital’s intensive care unit. The part that went to the theatre was left intact.For Professor Rudo Mathivha, head of ICU at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, it was a nightmare.
It took roughly five hours to evacuate the patients, she said. Each patient had to be accompanied by a doctor and nurses and their condition had to be carefully monitored as they were being moved. The incident was allegedly reported to the police after Mathivha raised the matter with hospital management and the department of infrastructure development.“We did receive an alert from the hospital about the stolen copper, and we had to go on an emergency procurement to find replacement copper,” he said.“We are very worried about this phenomenon where people are stealing, especially copper and electrical cables in the hospitals,” he added.
Moreriane believes that the incident was reported to the police. “I have not checked with the security guys but usually it is standard practice that if there is a theft, it is reported to the police,” he said.It is understood that an investigation by highly placed sources at the hospital revealed the following:
When inquiring about the whereabouts of a senior DID person at the hospital doctors were told that he was attending the Nasrec conference.Due to the unavailability of the ICU and a shutdown in theatres to allow artisans to fix the cut pipe, cases in surgical theatre were delayed. Ricardo Mahlakanya, spokesperson for the Office of Health Standards Compliance , said that should families wish to lodge a complaint, the office would look into the matter. However, Mahlakanya explained that copper theft would not necessarily warrant an investigation. If no patients pass away because of the incident, he said he will struggle to see the need for an investigation.
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