The Democratic Alliance is appalled by the report today that 30 psychiatric patients are kept in poor conditions in an emergency ward at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital.
According to a quoted source, these patients “are being kept like animals.” They do not have privacy or direct access to toilets, relieving themselves on the floor or in a bottle as security escort them to toilets only once or twice a day.
Safety is an issue as a patient has attacked a nurse in this ward.
It is utterly shameful that this is happening at our flagship hospital in our province.
I will be pressing the Gauteng Health Department to take urgent measures to provide decent facilities and treatment for these patients.