Nurses Suspended After Video of Naked Patient Circulates on Social Media

Residents protested outside Hewu Hospital in the Eastern Cape on 17 June. Three nurses at the hospital have been suspended after a video was posted on social media of a naked woman patient.

• Three nurses at Hewu Hospital in Whittlesea in the Eastern Cape are on suspension after a video was posted on social media of a naked woman patient.
• The patient died the same day.
• Residents are planning a protest next week, to call for the dismissal of the nurses and to complain about poor service at the hospital.
• The hospital is in poor condition, with leaking roofs and broken toilets.
• The Eastern Cape Department of Health says it will be renovated this year.

Residents of Whittlesea in the Eastern Cape are demanding the dismissal of three nurses at Hewu Hospital, who are accused of taking a video of a naked patient last month and circulating it on social media. The patient died the same day.

They say the patient was not helped in time because she did not have the R90 which the hospital charges people who walk in without a referral letter, unless it is an emergency.

Residents protested several times last month about this and plan another protest next week.

Eastern Cape Department of Health spokesperson Siyanda Manana confirmed that patients who did not come via a primary healthcare clinic or a doctor were charged a R40 consultation fee and a R50 “bypass fee”, depending on the patient’s situation.

Community leader Ntombozuko Dimaza said on 7 June a naked woman had been found near the dumping site, close to the hospital, by some children. The woman is known in the area.

“She was still breathing. She had bruises all over her body,” said Dimaza. Residents had covered the woman with a blanket and called an ambulance. A video of her naked in the hospital bed had circulated the same day.

“On the video we saw, the woman is unattended, she still has grass on her forehead, no drip, she is lying on a bed naked. Nurses are talking in the background, one saying that the patient is gasping for air, while the other says it was God’s grace that she was found still alive.”

Manana said the nurses had been suspended pending an investigation.

But Dimaza said residents want the nurses to be fired.

“We have been complaining about the bad services in this hospital and also the poor infrastructure. But no one listened to us. What they did now is even worse, taking a video of a naked patient and circulating it on social media. And as the community we believe that the woman was not assisted because she didn’t have the R90.”

“There’s nothing that is going right in this hospital. Roofs are leaking in most wards,” said Dimaza.

When GroundUp visited the hospital a week ago, the toilets were broken, and there was no water.

Resident Simnikiwe Matoti said the clinic at Ekuphumleni, a few kilometres away, was very busy and did not accept patients in the afternoons.

“When people are turned away at the clinic they go to the hospital, only to be turned away because of not having the R90. I have witnessed that, on the day we were having a protest outside the hospital complaining about the same thing,” she said.

GroundUp visited the Ekuphumleni clinic last week. We arrived at 12:30 and spent at least 30 minutes there. In those 30 minutes we witnessed two patients being turned away. There were four nurses working. At 1pm all the nurses who were dealing with sick patients and the receptionist took a lunch break, leaving people unattended.

Sixty-five-year-old Zoyisele Marhaya said the previous week, he had battled to get his diabetic medication because he had come a day late. “That is why people opt to go to Hewu hospital but now the hospital is also refusing to help us if we don’t have the R90,” he said.

Manana said Hewu Hospital is to be renovated this year. The tender had been advertised, he said.

He said the nurses could not be replaced because they had not been dismissed. Steps were being taken to make sure that services were not affected.

The hospital had a total of 50 nurses, Manana said.

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