Health Ombud reveals serious breaches at South African hospitals

THE Health Ombud has exposed serious clinical and ethical breaches in two separate investigations.

- YASMINE JACOBS

One at Limpopo’s Rethabile Community Health Centre (RCHC) and Pietersburg Provincial Tertiary Hospital (PPTH), and another at Johannesburg's Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre (WDGMC). Both cases resulted in preventable patient harm, including death.

In the first case, avoidable death and falsified records in Limpopo, it found that.

Pitsi Eliphuz Ramphele, nephew of struggle icon Dr Mamphela Ramphele, died on November 28, 2024, after seeking emergency care for severe abdominal pain.

Findings at RCHC indicate that Ramphele waited nearly four hours just to get a patient file. Despite worsening symptoms, no doctor examined him. At 3.30pm he was referred to a doctor, but none were available. Security staff told him to go home at 3.53pm. His waiting time in total was around eight hours, which was far above national standards.