Residents in and around Louis Trichardt who are concerned about treatment they are receiving or the unhygienic state at the Louis Trichardt Memorial Hospital, must lodge a complaint through the correct channels. Only then will the complaint be investigated and the situation corrected.

A concerned member of the public said recently: “We took an employee’s wife to the hospital. When I went to visit her in the afternoon, we first had to search for her. Apparently, nobody knew in which room she was. As I walked though the hospital, I was horrified at the untidy rooms and dirty floors. When we finally found her on the third attempt, I was shocked at the state of her room. All the beds where unmade or covered with dirty sheets. I think that this unhygienic state of affairs of the hospital is unacceptable.”

Another person said, “When I visited my husband in hospital, there was still leftover food standing on the bedside tables and on trolleys in the hall. The flies were starting to buzz around it. The hospital is not very clean. I was afraid that my husband might get even more ill. I am afraid to go there my-self.”

When the Zoutpansberger approached the chief executive officer of the hospital, Mr Godfrey Tshiwavhusu, for comment, he said all enquires should be directed to Mr Phuti Seloba, the spokesperson for the Limpopo Department of Health and Social Development.

Mr Seloba commented as follows: “We cannot do anything if members of the public keep quiet, because then it is their own opinion and not a fact. If a member of the public has complaints about the treatment they received at the Memorial Hospital, they should direct it to the CEO of the hospital. If the CEO doesn’t want to help them, they should direct the complaint to me. People are welcome to phone me on my cellphone. We will then send inspectors to in-spect the complaint. The staff at the hospital and department are, after all, the servants of the public.”

Mr Seloba can be contacted during office hours at 015 293 6000 or at 082 807 0796.