7 December 2007
Health officials defused a potentially acrimonious situation at Jose Pearson
Hospital yesterday. The patients are suffering from Extreme Drug Resistant
(XDR) and Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB) and had wanted to go
home for Christmas and New Year holidays.
Miyakazi Nokwe who is a Senior Manager for TB explained the policy governing
XDR and MDR patients to the patients. She also explained the implications to
the patients and the risk their unauthorised release would pose to their family
members and the community at large. A compromise was reached between the
hospital and the patients where the health department agreed to assess all the
patients with immediate effect and those who had converted to negative would be
released for some time under strict supervision and then they would return to
the hospital. Those that were positive would not be released, it was
agreed.
Currently the doctors are doing thorough assessments of all the patients and
the process of the reviews would take five days.
Patients that would not be released it was agreed would have a function
organised for them at the hospital premises at the expense of the department.
The department agreed to ferry the relatives of the patients not released to
the hospital in order for the patients to spend time with their loved ones.
Some patients have been at the institution for more than twelve months
whilst others have been there more than eighteen months.
The MEC of Health, Nomsa Jajula emphasised that the pass out to patients
would be strictly guided by policy. The MEC stressed that the families would
see their loved ones under precautionary measures. She empathised with the
patients that would remain behind but stressed that because the department
engaged with the patients, common ground was reached and the patients
understood. The MEC hoped that the function would go a long way in bringing the
spirit of Christmas to the patients and staff that would be on duty.
After the fruitful engagement, normality returned to the hospital.
Issued by: Department of Health, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
7 December 2007
Source: Eastern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.ecdoh.gov.za)
