Health ombud says Rahima Moosa maternity hospital is filthy and unsafe

A year-long investigation by the health ombud has confirmed complaints about harrowing conditions for pregnant women and babies at Gauteng’s Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital, including the CEO failing to report for duty while expectant mothers slept on the floor, toilets overflowed and wards were left unheated.

It is the second probe into the state of the hospital in less than a decade, raising questions about the provincial health department’s appetite to implement the health ombud’s recommendations, which include instituting disciplinary proceedings against CEO Nozuko Mkabayi and rapidly refurbishing the facility.

In 2017, professors Ashraf Coovadia and Hennie Lombaard released a report into the state of the hospital, detailing the risks it posed to women and children, with a follow-up report four years later that made similar findings and recommendations.

The Rahima Moosa hospital is not the first Gauteng facility probed by the ombud, who has previously looked into the deaths of mental health patients in the Life Esidimeni scandal and the death of a Covid-19 patient at Thembisa Hospital.

The latest investigation was prompted by media reports detailing how paediatrician Tim Meyer was suspended and threatened with disciplinary action for speaking about the conditions at the hospital, and a complaint laid by DA MP Haseena Ismail.

Three words summed up the state of the hospital, said health ombud Malegapuru Makgoba as he released his final report on Tuesday, “dirty, filthy and unsafe.

“Rahima Moosa [hospital] deserves a CEO who is fit for purpose,” he said, describing how Mkabayi had failed to work full-time at the hospital. There were “substantial irregularities” concerning her leave, with 27 work days unaccounted for in 2021 and another 71 in 2022, and she could not provide evidence of the virtual meetings she said she had attended from home, Makgoba said.

“The most striking thing is that this hospital has been neglected for years,” Magkoba added. The 80-year-old hospital’s infrastructure is crumbling and it lacks the resources required of a modern maternity hospital, including on-site laboratory services available 24 hours a day, a blood bank and an adult intensive care unit, he said. Hospital staff had been mugged and cars stolen from the premises, despite on-site security services, and there were irregularities in the facility’s supply chain management, he said.

When the hospital ran short of the medication usually used to disinfect the skin of patients about to undergo surgery, the theatre manager “decided to create her own concoction” and administer a diluted solution of Steriscrub disinfectant, leading to 11 cases of serious postoperative infection, said Makgoba. She, too, should face disciplinary action, he said.

The Progressive Health Forum, an association of health activists, said the CEO of the hospital being found unfit for office was a direct result of the Gauteng health department “unilaterally and insensibly” lowering the standards for such appointments. The investigation revealed Gauteng applied less stringent criteria for hospital CEOs than other provinces.

kahnt@businesslive.co.za