A team of specialist surgeons at the Bongani Regional Hospital in Welkom showed their humanitarianism by volunteering their services to clear surgical backlogs facing the Free State Department of Health.
Severe shortages in orthopaedic services and Eskom’s implementation of load shedding had exacerbated the backlog.
The medical practitioners successfully performed surgeries on 19 orthopaedic patients at the Bongani Hospital.
Dr Jabu Mofokeng, an orthopaedic surgeon at the hospital, led the team to successfully complete the Ortho Blitz.
Mondli Mvambi, spokesperson for the department, said surgeries were performed over the weekend, Saturday (28/01) and Sunday.
“The team of specialists and medical practitioners volunteered their services to reduce the extensive backlog of patients awaiting orthopaedic surgery.
“Due to an anaesthetic risk as a result of high blood pressure in one patient, the clinical team resorted to postponement of the procedure,” he said about the 20th patient who had been identified to undergo surgery.
“The decision is mainly so they can control the blood pressure and redo the patient at a later date as an elective surgery.”
Elective surgery is often performed on injuries or for conditions considered less life-threatening.
Mvambi said the 19 patients were the first group the medical practitioners operated on.
He confirmed that Montseng Tsiu, Free State MEC for Health, expressed her appreciation to the medical team and the hospital clinical cluster, as well as the management, for their spirit of volunteerism.
To address the role of load shedding in the backlog crisis, for which the department was sharply criticised, emergency surgeries were prioritised at designated hospitals from November last year.
More theatre spaces were made available at the following hospitals: Bongani, the Mofumahadi Manapo Mopeli Hospital in Phuthaditjhaba, the Fezi Ngubentombi District Hospital in Sasolburg, the Dihlabeng Regional Hospital in Bethlehem and the Boitumelo Regional Hospital in Kroonstad.
