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Plumtree residents petition govt over poor hospital services

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PLUMTREE residents have petitioned the district medical officer over poor service delivery at a local hospital.

BY PATRICIA SIBANDA

PLUMTREE residents have petitioned the district medical officer over poor service delivery at a local hospital.

The residents accused staff at Plumtree District Hospital of being arrogant and negligent towards patients, leading to unnecessary deaths.

Part of the petition read: “It has come to the public’s attention that there exists a number of cases of ill-treatment of patients by the hospital management. We, as Plumtree residents, humbly present this petition, hoping that through your co-operation the matter may be resolved in an amicable manner.”

Plumtree Combined Residents and Development Association chairperson Richard Khumalo said: “It is sad to note that our hospital has been labelled a death trap due to patients losing their lives while waiting to be served. Many residents are not happy with the way hospital staff attends to patients. Recently, cases of death have been reported resulting from negligence and poor treatment by hospital staff.”

Khumalo appealed to district medical officer Joe Nganunu to intervene.

Nganunu yesterday said they were seized with the matter.

“I confirm that we have received such a report. We recently wrote to the residents and other stakeholders inviting them to a meeting to iron out this issue,“ he said.

“We have actually come up with what we call a patient charter to improve service delivery.”

Over the past week, two patients reportedly died at the institution before being attended to.

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