The family of Pieter Groenewald (70) is demanding answers after he allegedly died hours after being discharged from Wentworth Hospital, as numerous complaints about the facility continue surfacing on social media.
The community has increasingly taken to social media to raise concerns the about alleged poor service delivery, long waiting times, inadequate patient care and staff conduct at the hospital, with Groenewald’s death now intensifying calls for accountability.
Groenewald’s niece, Veronica Van Rooyen, told Merebank and Chatsworth Tabloid that the family took him to the hospital’s emergency unit after he complained of severe chest pain believed to be linked to a heart attack.
“We got to the hospital just before or just after 8 in the morning. I told security he was having an active heart attack,” she said.
Van Rooyen alleged that despite his condition, they waited for more than an hour before he was attended to.
“I don’t know how you wait for someone that you can actually see is having a heart attack and they’re not doing anything,” she said.
According to Van Rooyen, Groenewald was eventually assessed, had his vital signs checked and was given medication including Panado, Tramadol and TNT before being sent for an ECG.
She further alleged that one of the ECG printouts was discarded by staff, prompting her to retrieve it from a bin because she found the incident suspicious.
Van Rooyen claims Groenewald was later moved to another section of the emergency unit where he was allegedly not connected to any monitoring equipment despite continuing to complain of chest pain.
“He started telling me the pain is back again and it’s heavy again and even when I told the doctors they didn’t do anything about it,” she said.
She also alleged that there were lengthy periods where no medical staff attended to him and that he was eventually discharged after doctors informed the family that blood results showed “nothing wrong with his heart”.
Groenewald was later found dead the following morning.
Meanwhile, Wentworth community activist and chairperson of the Wentworth Hospital Committee, Tracey Williams, said residents were exhausted from repeatedly raising concerns about conditions at the hospital.
“We as a community are exhausted from fighting for our people,” she said.
Williams alleged that there have been ongoing issues involving staffing shortages, delayed feedback to families and concerns surrounding service delivery at the facility.
KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health spokesperson Sibongiseni Mkhize confirmed to the Merebank and Chatsworth Tabloid that “the enquiry has been lodged”.
The department has not yet confirmed whether a formal internal investigation has commenced or responded to the specific allegations raised by the family.
