Netcare Umhlanga Hospital maintains international best practice infection control measures that are regularly monitored by the Department of Health, hospital manager Shaun Ryan said yesterday.
|||Netcare Umhlanga Hospital maintains international best practice infection control measures that are regularly monitored by the Department of Health, hospital manager Shaun Ryan said yesterday.
Ryan was responding to media reports following Minority Front leader Amichand Rajbansi’s death from a hospital acquired infection two weeks ago that led to his wife Shameen calling for improved infection control in hospitals.
Shameen Rajbansi alleged in The Post newspaper this week that her husband had been fitted with a pacemaker, which he did not need, before contracting an untreatable virus in hospital. She told the newspaper that doctors at the hospital had “refused to have their judgment questioned and had blankly refused to allow us to get a second opinion until later on”.
Premier Zweli Mkhize had intervened and asked the Health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo to assess Rajbansi’s condition. Dr Brian Vesi, a cardiac electro-physiologist from Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital, then assessed his condition by which time he said he was already “very ill”, said Shameen Rajbansi.
She said yesterday that she was still weighing up her options on what action to take regarding his death which could include complaining to the Health Professions Council of SA.
Ryan said in a statement yesterday that Netcare extended its “heartfelt condolences” to Rajbansi and her family.
However, he said the hospital did not employ the doctors that attended to patients.
He said the hospital’s infection prevention measures were in line with international best practices and complied with recommendations of the Centre for Disease Control in the US.
“Netcare Umhlanga Hospital continues to maintain strict infection control procedures throughout the hospital to ensure patient safety. These are continuously reviewed and audited. The management, staff and doctors at the hospital consider the safety and care of patients to be their highest priority,” Ryan said.
He said health care-associated infections were sometimes acquired during life-saving medical treatment despite maximum care and asceptic conditions. The very young and people over 60, diabetics and people underweight or overweight, or who had serious underlying medical conditions, were most at risk. - The Independent on Saturday