Central SA
Samp, cabbage served to patients at Free State hospital─── TSHEHLA KOTELI 13:36 Wed, 01 Feb 2023
Patients at the Katleho Hospital in Virginia, Free State, have not received proper nutrition for months.
One of the staff members at the hospital alleged that the hospital was not serving patients nutritious food for at least three months. She alleged they have had to serve plain bread with tea to patients for breakfast, samp with cabbage for lunch and the same meal for supper. The only switch they made within these months, was changing samp to porridge. “No communication has ever been given to us about when the situation will change,” she added.
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The spokesperson for the provincial Department of Health, Mondli Mvambi, confirmed that the allegations are true. “The department was circumstantially forced to serve patients those types of food due to the inability of a food service contract to perform,” he explained. Mvambi added the hospital CEO confirmed that the contracted food service company has been unable to fully perform in line with the contract since November 2022. This was allegedly due to the contracted food service company’s financial constraints until they voluntarily surrendered the contract in January 2023.
The department has been held ransom by a fact beyond its control, to the detriment of the nutritional needs of patients. “The hospital has been doing all that it can to solicit help from neighbouring health facilities, which at least managed to help with all food essentials until their supplies also dropped due to an unforeseen and unbudgeted demand that has been caused by the non-performance of the food service company,” he stated.
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Mvambi further stated that the department has since facilitated a new bid for the appointment of contractors that will have the capacity to meet all the service requirements, so that the hospital can meet the nutritional needs of the patients. "The department apologises to all the patients that have had to endure the unexpected and undesirable types of meals. This ordeal will soon be wiped out of their memory by decent meals, as intended by the department,” he concluded.
