A male nurse has been fired for allegedly raping a patient suffering from depression in a Potchefstroom hospital.
|||A male nurse has been fired for allegedly raping a patient suffering from depression in a Potchefstroom hospital in North West province, officials said on Friday.
“The moral fibre of our society is actually going down,” health MEC Magome Masike told SABC radio news.
“We went through a disciplinary process where the man was found guilty and was fired,” he said.
North West police spokesman Brigadier Thulani Ngubane said the 24-year-old man would appear in the Potchefstroom Magistrate's Court on February 16.
“The patient was admitted to the hospital for depression. She was sitting in a TV room when she was called by the male nurse to the linen room,” Ngubane said.
“According to the information received, the victim followed the suspect because she thought he was calling her to give her medicine. It is alleged that the suspect drugged the victim with medicine before raping her.”
The alleged rape happened on Thursday, January 19.
“The suspect used rubber gloves during the rape and disposed of it in the dustbin,” said Ngubane.
The woman reported the rape to hospital authorities.
The man appeared in court for the first time on January 21 and was released on R1000 bail.
Masike said the provincial health department had apologised to the woman and the community.
“We believe that hospitals (should be) safe places and we are quite disappointed,” said Masike.
Cosatu in the province condemned the incident.
“If he is a member of the Cosatu union, and is (found) guilty of the offence, we call on the union to dismiss this member immediately and not to represent him in the hearing,” said spokesman Solly Phetoe.
“We cannot allow this kind of person to practise in our hospitals any more.”
He added that patients suffering from mental illnesses should be treated at psychiatric hospitals.
Last month, a male nurse from a Bloemfontein hospital appeared in court on a charge of raping a terminally ill cancer patient. The woman has since died.
In December, KwaZulu-Natal police said they were searching for a male nurse who allegedly raped a mentally ill patient in a shower at Osindisweni hospital in Verulam, north of Durban. – Sapa