"Shame": Patient Claims Gauteng Hospital Staff Treat Dying Patients Like ‘Cockroaches’ in Viral Clip

• A disgruntled patient has described the shocking conditions and treatment patients receive at a Johannesburg hospital
• Helen Joseph Hospital has once again come under fire after the patient posted a video lamenting his experience
• The Gauteng Health Department said it had since launched an investigation into the patient's scathing allegations

JOHANNESBURG — A Helen Joseph Hospital patient has exposed shocking treatment and conditions at the public facility in Auckland Park, Johannesburg, in a scathing social media rant.

In a video published on Saturday that has since gone viral, the patient, Tom London, seethes as he describes the events at the public hospital.

Patient makes damning claims against hospital

His tirade opened an old can of worms after the historical barrage of complaints against Helen Joseph.

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"The doctors that run around here treat the patients like cockroaches. They treat them with utter disdain and disrespect from the young medical students all the way up the chain. I've never seen a level of disrespect for human beings like this in my life," alleged London.

He describes an unpleasant encounter with a new doctor, who told him his previous doctor had handed his less complicated patients to someone else after the one attending to him apparently left to write exams.

In the almost six-minute video, he explained that this allegedly resulted in him not being seen by a doctor for about 48 hours.

He addresses his attending doctor directly in the recording:

"Dr Pillay, I don't know, broer. You came and spoke to me every day [and] two days ago, you said we were going to look at each other awkwardly for the next few until [I] have [my] CT scans, and now you've ducked."

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The patient also revealed the rough handling of another sufferer in his ward.

"The doctor treating the [patient] opposite me, who's in constant pain, [handles] him with absolute disrespect ... the doctors here are behaving like patients are their experiments. I've never ever experienced anything like this in my life."

He gets up and moves to another part of the ward, using his phone to record the extent of the infrastructure decay: broken taps, crumbling ceiling, rotting runners, rusted metalwork, and dysfunctional plugs.

"The doctors here, you give doctors a bad name. Despicable human beings. I'm so angry with you. This is the Helen Joseph circus hospital, where doctors experiment on you," London mutters.

Doctors allegedly laugh at dead patient

In another shocking moment, he pans his camera to reveal a patient whom he says is lying dead in his bed.

"The guy opposite me is dead. He died 20 minutes ago and [was left] lying in bed, gone," he said angrily.

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"When the doctors left the ward after he died, they were laughing. Shame on Helen Joseph Hospital but, mostly, shame on the doctors that think they have the right to call themselves doctors."

The health department issued a statement on Sunday, 8 September, confirming probing London's allegations.

"The department is investigating the matter to establish facts and address the issues the complainant raised. The department launched an "I Serve With A Smile" provincial campaign nine months ago, aimed at improving staff attitude and patient care. The programme is being rolled out at all healthcare facilities," said health spokesperson Motalatale Modiba.

Helen Joseph Hospital patients sleep on chairs, cold floor

In another exposé, Briefly News reported that Helen Joseph Hospital previously came under fire for its grossly overcrowded casualty ward, as sick patients were forced to sleep on chairs and the cold floor.

Nearly 50 patients endured the inhumane goings-on at the 636-bed facility in July, said Democratic Alliance Gauteng Shadow Health Member of the Executive Council (MEC) Jack Bloom.

Source: Briefly News