Sunday Times E-Edition

CEO’s missing months at chaotic maternity hospital

By GILL GIFFORD

● Dr Nozuko Mkabayi, the former CEO of the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital in Johannesburg, took up her position three weeks after reporting to the regulator that she had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital due to a long-standing mental condition.

Mkabayi — who was transferred out of the hospital in November last year — looms large in a report into the shocking state of the hospital released this week by health ombud Dr Malegapuru Makgoba. Annexures attached to the report show she spent 182 days at work since she was appointed in January 2021, and missed 98 days with no reason.

Mkabayi’s repeated absences were raised when she was asked by the Gauteng legislature in August last year to confirm how many days she had been at work since her appointment. She claimed a total of 346 days, but an affidavit from the hospital’s human resources manager revealed that her office had booked out her file and never returned it, so this could not be verified.

Other documents attached to the report after the ombud’s year-long investigation revealed chaos at the country’s second-largest maternity hospital:

A grievance from 55 staff members of the neonatal ward in June 2021 said the ward was hopelessly overcrowded with up to 80 patients and only 35 beds;

The staff complained of a shortage of equipment and that broken machines were not replaced;

Patients with Covid were not isolated and three newborns with Covid-positive mothers were mixed in with other babies in the paediatric intensive care unit;

● Another ward was not properly heated, nurses were not allowed to wear jerseys and babies were cold with too few blankets;

● Between 30 and 50 patients were being admitted every day to a nine-bed labour ward and a 10-bed labour admissions ward;

● The hospital switchboard broke down in June 2021 and was only fixed in March 2022; and

● The hospital’s generator was not powerful enough and was out of action for a full week last July. Doctors had to intubate patients by the light of their cellphone torches.

Another complaint about the shortage of nurses said that while the hospital had 1,412 staff, there were 350 vacancies, a “crisis that will lead to deaths if it is not resolved”. The hospital relied on a nursing agency, but this was no longer a solution because the agency hadn’t been paid. Shortly after this complaint was lodged, when the hospital was running at 150% capacity, payment to the agency was approved.

A report by senior doctors at the hospital said outbreaks of multidrug-resistant organisms had tripled, and a dangerous fungal infection — Candida auris — had emerged. Reasons included overcrowding, high patient-to-nurse ratios, poor hygiene because of a lack of sanitiser and broken towel dispensers, pipe bursts, no running water, flooding and failure to isolate babies with infections. “The mortality rate is increasing and preventable causes of death like asphyxia and sepsis are rising,” the doctors said. The ombud’s report, which branded the hospital as “dirty, filthy and unsafe”, sparked a public outcry this week.

The Gauteng department of health said it welcomed the report and would study it “with the view of consolidating an implementation plan to address the issues raised”, and had “already started actioning” some of the recommendations.

Mkabayi could not be reached for comment.

According to documents in the ombud’s report, she e-mailed a “self-declaration” to the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) in December 2020, saying she had been admitted to a psychiatric unit for a condition she had lived with for 21 years. She had had “multiple psychosocial issues; hence the relapse”. The council logged the report but offered no record of having done anything further.

The HPCSA did tell the ombud that it had previously investigated Mkabayi in 2017 but found no evidence that she was too impaired to do her job. Then, in March 2021 — just three months into her stint as CEO — the regulator received new information about her and launched a fresh inquiry. As a result of this inquiry, the council told Mkabayi in December last year that it planned to suspend her from practising as a doctor. The HPCSA did not respond to queries this week.

In June 2020, Mkabayi was one of three applicants who answered adverts in the Sunday Times for top jobs in the province. Her CV included stints at Rahima Moosa and the Bheki Mlangeni District Hospital and other positions in paediatrics and child health.

Makgoba recommended she face a disciplinary hearing but did not recommend her dismissal, saying “she appears to be doing well and is committed to following her treatment” after being transferred to the human resources chief directorate in the Gauteng department of health.

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2023-03-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://times-e-editions.pressreader.com/article/281694029017297

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