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Elderly suffer over faulty lifts at National Hospital

───   PULANE CHOANE 16:06 Thu, 08 Nov 2018

Elderly suffer over faulty lifts at National Hospital | News Article

A concerned resident in Bloemfontein, Tsepo Tsimong, told OFM News that last week he was shocked to discover lifts were not working at the National Hospital in the city.


Tsimong said he had accompanied his elderly, ailing aunt to the Eye Clinic. Despite it being at the National Hospital premises, the clinic falls under the Universitas Academic Hospital (UAH). They had to use the stairs to get to the clinic on the second floor of the hospital. Tsimong further said hospital staff told him the lifts had not been working for over four years and hospital management was aware of the problem. The spokesperson at the Free State Department of Health, Mondli Mvambi, conceded Tsimong’s statements, saying management was aware of the problem but was working rigorously to rectify it.

Speaking to OFM News, the departmental spokesperson confirmed that the Eye Clinic in question, which falls under the Universitas Academic Hospital’s Ophthalmology Department, only has two lifts. Mvambi admitted that the fact that both lifts were not working was indeed hampering the department’s quest to adhere to the provision of good quality services. He further said that that hospital management was speedily working on the problem and, as a matter of fact, the department managed to consolidate funds that will enable it to implement a repair and maintenance programme over the next three years.

“A service provider has been appointed last week on Monday to repair and renovate lifts at the unit located at the National Hospital and Universitas Academic Hospital benefited from a replacement of five lifts and we are now working on the last one for all lifts to be in good working order,“ Mvambi said. Mvambi also concluded by stating the department had also successfully replaced two lifts at the Free State School of Nursing, which is in the precinct of National Hospital.


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