Several newborn babies have died while others have been left brain damaged at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital’s labour ward because of a staffing crisis, according to doctors.
At least two of the deaths were described as avoidable stillbirths.
The staffing crisis is linked to, among others, the non-payment of nursing agencies.
It has now emerged that the details of the deaths were what prompted Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi to urgently intervene and dispatch five defence force theatre nurses to Bara’s busy maternity ward last month.
An internal letter leaked to Health-e from the head of the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at Bara, Dr Eckhart Buchmann, to the academic head of Wits University’s department of obstetrics and gynaecology, Dr Franco Guidozzi, reveals that the shortage of midwives and maternity staff became apparent in early November, precipitated by the non-payment of the Khalipha Agency by the Gauteng Department of Health.
“Hospital management, including the head of nursing services, were aware of the problem, but seemed unable to resolve it,” the clinician wrote in the letter, dated January 23.
According to the letter, the department eventually paid its outstanding fees in late December, but there was no increase in labour ward and nursing staff.
“The first two weeks of January were marked by increasing associated morbidity and mortality, with two avoidable stillbirths.
“The theatre queues became increasingly long, and from January 9 to 11 the hospital transferred 16 women out for caesarean sections at other hospitals,” Buchmann wrote, adding that the addition of the defence force staff did not reduce the shortage of theatre space.
The correspondence details how the shortage of midwives and overcrowding saw women being in labour for excessively long periods, resulting in health workers missing foetal distress and babies suffering hypoxia (lack of oxygen to the brain).
The doctors also revealed that, due to staff shortages and resultant delays in caesarean sections, a number of babies who needed urgent deliveries died or were born asphyxiated, resulting in brain damage.
Bara CEO Johanna More denied she was informed of these incidents or deaths and that they could be linked to the staff shortages.
“I need to ask what these doctors were doing when the babies died. Maybe it is time for us to investigate the private practices of some of these doctors. What have they been doing to help me?”
She said Bara delivered between 900 and 1 200 babies a month, and accused the doctors of being happy to have women deliver on hospital benches before she took the reins three years ago.
“Where were they when these babies were dying? Where are these consultants? Spending time in conferences,” More said. “If the gloves are now off, so be it.”
Doctors also reported that labour ward beds stayed wet and dirty for extended periods, even resulting in maggots breeding in the blood-soaked mattresses.
Staff who worked under these conditions reported severe psychological stress, forcing them to deliver a “dysfunctional and unsafe service to users”.
The national health department said on Wednesday: “There are huge problems at Chris Hani. There are huge problems at the maternity unit,”
Spokesman Fidel Hadebe said he could not “categorise” these issues, but said the national and provincial health departments were talking with the hospital to resolve staff shortages”.
“That's why nurses from (the SA National Defence Force) were deployed a few weeks ago to help out at the hospital.” - Health-e News Service and Sapa