Swaziland hospital crisis: govt not paid bills so patients only eat bread

Patients in a public hospital in Swaziland / eSwatini were only fed two slices of bread at meals when food ran out because the government had not paid suppliers. 

It was reported the bakery would only deliver bread if it was paid in advance. 

Swaziland is reeling from a health crisis because the government has not paid it debts. Nurses plan a protest march against government.

The Times of Swaziland reported on Monday (18 June 2019) that the food shortage hit two public hospitals, Hlatikhulu Government Hospital and Nhlangano Health Centre, both in the Shiselweni Region.

It reported at Hlatikhulu, ‘patients revealed that for the past week, hospital staff had been dishing only two slices of dry bread for all the meals of the day’.

It added, ‘An interviewed patient said there was a brief relief on Tuesday when they were given porridge and soup. Thereafter, the patient said they were back to the bread supply.’

At Nhlangano it was reported staff paid for food out of their own money.

In the past food shortages have been reported at the Mbabane Government Hospital and again at Hlatikhulu Government Hospital. 

The food problem is one of many facing the health service in Swaziland which is caused by the government’s inability to pay suppliers. There are shortages of many drugs across the kingdom. Local media reported in the past that many people, including children, have died as a result.

Members of the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) plan to march and deliver a petition to the Ministry of Health on Friday (22 June 2019) to demand it addresses the drugs shortage. 

It is not only a problem of drugs. Hospital equipment, including at intensive-care units at Mbabane Government Hospital, has also not been maintained and cannot be used. 

In June 2018 it was revealed there were only 12 working public ambulances in the whole of Swaziland because the government failed to maintain them. It had bought no new ambulances since 2013.

See also

HIV drugs not available across Swaziland as health crisis deepens

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/06/hiv-drugs-not-available-across.html

Swaziland health crisis getting worse as budgets cut. Rural areas most affected

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/02/swaziland-health-crisis-getting-worse.html

Medicine shortage: five die

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2017/06/medicine-shortage-five-die.html

Report: patients die as Swaziland government hospital runs out of cash

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/01/report-patients-die-as-swaziland.html

Another hospital in Swaziland runs out of food for patients as Govt bills go unpaid

Another public hospital in Swaziland / eSwatini has run out of food and patients have been left hungry because bills to suppliers have not been paid.

 

The Swazi Government is in financial meltdown and public services across the kingdom are grinding to a halt.

The Hlatikhulu Government Hospital has run out of food and patients are being fed thin porridge for supper, the Times of Swaziland reported on Wednesday (6 February 2019).

It added patients had been told to get their relatives to supply them with food or to send people to buy them food at nearby outlets. 

The Times reported the hospital could not pay its suppliers. It added it did not know how much was owed but ‘certain suppliers have not been paid yet they had been owed for years’.

It reported, ‘A spot check conducted yesterday unearthed that some patients had been able to carry on with only a plate of soft porridge which was served in the morning. A woman found at the maternity ward said even on the previous day, they were only served soft porridge for supper.’

It added there was only enough food in the kitchen for one day.

It said, ‘A staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, disclosed that the situation was so dire such that patients might have nothing to eat from today onwards.’

Previously, it was reported Mbabane Government Hospital had run out of food because of unpaid bills. The Times of Swaziland reported in September 2018 patients only had apples and juice. It was unclear how much money was owed.

The newspaper reported Dr Simon Zwane, Principal Secretary at the Ministry of Health, said there was ‘no food for the patients because the ministry had not paid the catering company that provides food for the hospital’.

In December 2018 it was reported that the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Mbabane Government Hospital was close to shut-down because equipment was not being maintained. People were dying because of this, it was reported.

The Government is broke and public services across the kingdom have been run into the ground. The Times of Swaziland reported at the time, ‘A medical staff member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, alleged that they had on countless occasions raised the issue of the unfixed machines and that the response they received was that there was no money.’

Health services across Swaziland are in crisis. In September 2018 it was reported at least six children in Swaziland had died from diarrhoea and many more were sick because the government was broke and could not pay for vaccines. It would cost US$6 for the vaccine to immunise a child.

Medicines of all sorts have run out in public hospitals and health clinics across Swaziland. 

In July 2018 it was reported that Swazipharm, Swaziland’s largest distributor of pharmaceutical products and medical equipment to the healthcare system in the kingdom, could not buy new stocks because the Ministry of Health had not paid its bill. Swazipharm Sales and Marketing Manager Cindy Stankoczi confirmed it had cut the supply of drugs to local health institutions.

In June 2018 it was revealed there were only 12 working public ambulances in the whole of Swaziland to serve the population of about 1.2 million people because the government failed to maintain them. It had bought no new ambulances since 2013.

Meanwhile, King Mswati III who rules Swaziland as one of the world’s last absolute monarchs wore a watch worth US$1.6 million and a suit beaded with diamonds weighing 6 kg, at his 50^th birthday party in April 2018. Days earlier he took delivery of his second private jet, a A340 Airbus, that after VIP upgrades reportedly cost US$30 million. He received E15 million (US$1.2 million) in cheques, a gold dining room suite and a gold lounge suite among his birthday gifts.

Seven in ten of Swaziland’s population live in abject poverty with incomes less than the equivalent of US$2 per day. The King has 13 palaces. He also owns fleets of top-of-the range Mercedes and BMW cars. His family regularly travel the world on shopping trips spending millions of dollars each time.

See also

Children at risk of food poisoning as Swaziland Govt’s financial crisis continues

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/01/children-at-risk-of-food-poisoning-as.html

 

Swazi Govt ‘runs out of cash’

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/05/swazi-govt-runs-out-of-cash.html

Swaziland riot police invade hospital during peaceful nurses’ protest. Latest in long line of attacks on workers

Armed riot police invaded the Hlatikhulu Government Hospital in Swaziland and it ‘almost turned into a battleground’ during a legal protest by nurses.

It was another attack by police against workers in recent weeks.

The Times of Swaziland, the only independent daily newspaper in the kingdom recently renamed Eswatini by absolute monarch King Mswati III, reported on Friday (12 October 2018), ‘The Hlatikhulu Government Hospital was almost turned into a battleground after riot police invaded the facility, while nurses were engaged in a protest action.’

It said police with guns patrolled the hospital. They had entered the premises on Thursday after nurses started singing and chanting slogans, ‘in protest over what they described as unfair treatment by their management’. 

It added, ‘Sparking the anger was the abusive language that was allegedly employed by the over 10 officers, who were sent to the hospital.’

The Times reported, ‘Angry nurses who were demonstrating around the hospital premises confronted the police after the latter became aggressive and ordered them to halt their action.’

Police in Swaziland have an written policy to use violence against protestors. In the week up to the kingdom’s national election on 21 September 2018 workers organised by the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) took part in three days of strikes and protests in Mbabane, Manzini, Nhlangano and Siteki. 

Armed police were deployed across Swaziland. Videos and photographs of brutal police attacks were uploaded on social media. 

The Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) in a statement said, the videos circulated on social media indicated ‘unlawful police actions, and require urgent investigation’.

It added, ‘Several workers were wounded after police fired stun grenades to disperse the crowd in Manzini. These police officers then unleashed a wave of assaults against striking workers in an effort to quell the protests.’

The strike came after a series of protests and rallies which saw police violence in attempts to suppress the protestors. Police shot and wounded a schoolteacher at a vigil protesting their salaries in late August. Nurses in the kingdom’s capital city of Mbabane were tasered during a pay protest.  

See also

Vicious Attack by Swaziland Police on Defenceless Workers Captured on Video

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/09/vicious-attack-by-swaziland-police-on.html

 

Swaziland Police Fire Gunshots During Textiles Dispute, Third Attack on Workers in a Week

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/09/swaziland-police-fire-gunshots-during.html 

Police in Swaziland Attack Nurses With Taser During Peaceful Protest Over Pay

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/08/police-in-swaziland-attack-nurses-with.html

DISGRACEFUL SWAZILAND HOSPITALS

Thank you to the reader who contacted me after I wrote about the cockroaches at the newly opened Moneni TB Hospital to tell me this was nothing new.

The health services in Swaziland are a disgrace, they said. And they were right.

A quick look at some recent cases proves the point beyond dispute.

Swaziland’s largest health facility, the Mbabane Government Hospital was officially declared a health hazard to patients, lodgers and other people residing within its vicinity. An investigation found that the hospital was generally failing to manage its clinical waste. This exposed patients and visitors to the hospital to contagious diseases and other infections. READ

Hlatikhulu Government Hospital, the only referral hospital in the Shiselweni region, faced indefinite closure after inspectors said the hospital didn’t comply with health standards. READ

All toilets at the Mbabane Government Hospital were blocked. Women in the maternity wards had to go for days without bathing. When they do get the chance to bath, they can only use the sink at the mortuary. READ

Government hospital and clinics in Mankayane faced an electricity crisis which lasted at least three weeks because of unpaid bills. It was reported that the government failed to pay electricity bills for the health facilities, so the electricity company cut them off. READ

Even though it is the only hospital in the Lubombo region, the Good Shepherd Hospital does not have an ambulance. The hospital is in Siteki in the eastern part of the kingdom, one of the most drought-stricken areas in the kingdom, which is often beset by sicknesses such as diarrhoea, often caused by lack of water. READ

Mankayane Government Hospital forced patients to leave after a water crisis hit the institution. Many patients were seen walking out of the hospital wards. Some were pushed on wheelchairs and others supported as they were led to rest under trees at the parking lot. Pickup trucks with mattresses were at the parking lot, while some seriously sick patients sat listlessly on blankets, most of whom seemed disoriented. Concerned relatives stood nearby, with folded arms. READ

Bodies at the Hlathikhulu Government Hospital are piled one on the other as the mortuary has only eight drawers. This is the same hospital that health inspectors once recommended be closed because it was not fit to be hospital, but government promised to seek funds to help rehabilitate it. A few months later, the situation is almost the same if not worse. It was reported that patients at one female ward protested because a body of a dead woman was kept in one of the beds as there was no space at the mortuary. READ

Patients are being taken to the Mbabane Government Hospital’s theatre at their own risk because most of the critical medical technological analyzers at the hospital’s laboratory are down. READ

Mbabane Government Hospital and others have a serious shortage of bandages. According to a source at the hospital, a number of patients had their bandages left unchanged, which left a foul smell in the wards. READ

And it goes on and on and on.

For yet more cases, go to the Swaziland Solidarity Network Canada Wikispaces here.