Water crisis cripples Marina operations
Baboki Kayawe | Wednesday September 2, 2015 18:00
Patients considered “not very critical” and whose care and procedures required water were at risk of not being attended to because of the measures adopted by the hospital this week, as the water crisis deepened.
Even the 200,000 litre water reservoir at Botswana’s premier referral hospital, could not meet the demand.
Yesterday, Mmegi established that some patients in the haemodialysis ward were turned away because machines used for their treatment did not have water for cleaning. Haemodialysis is a common therapy in the management of advanced kidney failure.
“Due to the nature of this procedure machines have to be cleaned every time after use, but due to the water problems, many patients went home without receiving treatment,” witnesses in the health facility reported.
Princess Marina’s chief communications and public relations officer, Donnell Kutlapye, said priority was given to patients scheduled for operations, based on the availability of water.
“Low pressure or non-availability of water has forced the hospital to prioritise patients requiring operations, thus giving priority to emergency patients as well as urgent cases,” he said in a statement.
Kutlapye said low pressure and outages had been experienced in the gynae theatre, paediatric wards, spinalis medical wards and laundry as well as the dental department.
“Non-urgent operations had to be postponed until there is adequate water supply, and the situation will be reviewed on a daily basis,” he said.
He said Princess Marina would continue to do “the best it can to safeguard patient care during these trying times”.
This includes the installation of a 10,000-litre “Jojo” container meant to supply high use areas such as the kitchen and laundry.
“Patients and staff are being given bottled water for drinking during outages as well,” he said. “If the situation deteriorates in the long run, patients might be sent to other health facilities where the needed operations will be conducted by Princess Marina Hospital medical teams.”
A Mmegi news crew that visited Princess Marina yesterday afternoon found visitors scurrying between wards carrying shopping bags filled with bottled water for their relatives.
Numerous empty and half full water bottles were a common sight on the side tables of patients in most wards. While some taps had low-pressure water, others were dry, with red plastic tape wrapped around to apparently indicate that they were out of action.
Kitchen staffers went about their daily business, but reported that they had to draw water from the reservoir earlier in the day to prepare patients’ meals.
“The situation is normalising now and we have never failed to cook due to the water shortage,” said one staff member on condition of anonymity. “We are afraid there will be a huge crisis if the situation persists.”
In the corridors, talk between the nurses centred on whether the water was back yet.
Princess Marina’s 567 beds typically hold 750 patients, resulting in some sleeping on the floor. The hospital receives about 100 patients through its accident and emergency wing, with an average of 60 admissions.