6H30: We arrive at Addington Hospital. The patient's catheter is hurting her and seems to be blocked.
We have her file and receipt relatively quickly, by Addington standards (which, I know from dreary experience, are abysmal).
Casualty sends us to Polyclinic. It strikes me that Polyclinic will do nothing without a note. I go back to Casualty. A senior sister, after some discussion, sends us to Casualty screening. After screening, I ask the nurse for a note for Polyclinic. None needed, she says. I tell her that a very fierce nurse at Polyclinic always demands a note and I fear that I will be sent back.
Prophecy fulfilled. Return to sender, says the fierce nurse.
"I told you so".
The Casualty nurse is apologetic. She takes vitals and sends us back to Casualty Administration, where we languish for half an hour or more, while staff are busy on their phones, chatting and doing clerical stuff. Eventually, one deigns to address us, with a kind of "you may approach" royal gesture.
Now we wait for a doctor. And wait. Various people promise to check, and are then abducted by aliens enroute. Well, so it seems, as we never see them again. About three hours later, we get to see a doctor. One bright spot: the doctor is very patient, kind and thorough.
As for most of the administrative staff, they gave off a very strong flavour of feudal lords lordly granting favours to the peasants, as the mood took them.
You learn to be very patient at state hospitals. And humble. On this occasion, I lost my temper after being sent back and forth several times and generally being mucked around. On a rising tide of anger, the words spilled out:
"This is bullshit!"
"You're shouting at the wrong people", was the response. "It's Department X to blame."
"No", I retorted. "It's Addington Hospital."
And there's the rub. It's Department of Health, with their bovine acceptance of the unacceptable. It's every state hospital that has nurtured a culture of arrogance, indifference to people's pain, incompetence and slothfulness. Corruption and all its unsavoury companions also stalk many corridors and offices. Common cause, known abroad. That does beg a question or two. Where is our crusading press, where the television documentaries telling the stark truth about how far we have fallen? The daily suffering of ordinary South Africans not sexy enough?
"I spoke to a man who told me that his treatment at a state hospital was as good as that of any private hospital."
Words to that effect our president used during the famous Tintswalo state of the nation address. Perhaps such a state hospital does exist. A pity that most of us have not had that happy experience. Then again, perhaps we are living in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, where Newspeak reigns and truth, reality and friends are the first casualties of the war on the people of South Africa.
On the day of this particular hospital game of merry-go-round, there were a handful of patients. Perhaps there were just a handful of doctors as well. That is a different story.
Of course, the question of questions is: "South Africa, how long does this abomination continue?"
Tips for the blogger gratefully accepted
Capitec Bank, South Africa
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O Tichmann
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