Bizarre scenes unfolded last week when a bus transporting patients between Frontier Hospital in Komani and Frere Hospital in East London broke down and had to be taken to Stutterheim aboard a tow truck – with the shocked passengers still inside.
More than 30 people, from the Chris Hani and Joe Gqabi districts, were on board the bus when it broke down between Cathcart and Stutterheim last Thursday, patients claimed.
Some said they feared for their lives when the bus was then loaded onto the back of the tow truck.
They slammed the health department for the way the matter was handled after they were left stranded for three hours.
However, the health department has denied that all the patients were involved in the incident, saying a vehicle was dispatched to assist some of them reach Frere Hospital.
One of the patients, Chwayita Mrubata, said she could never have imagined such a “life-threatening” situation playing itself out.
“I feared for my life as the tow truck was carrying our bus,” she said, pointing out that she was used to travelling to Frere Hospital but had never experienced such a situation before.
Mrubata said the patients left Komani at 7am for their appointments at Frere Hospital, but the bus broke down an hour later.
“Between Cathcart and Stutterheim, smoke started to come out of the bus. The driver pulled over and they called another bus to come and take us to East London,” she said.
However, after waiting more than three hours only a tow truck arrived, and patients were told to get back in the bus which was then lifted onto the back of the tow truck.
“We then went to Stutterheim where the bus was being repaired. Another transport was organised to take us back to Komani. We were told that new bookings will be done for us,” Mrubata said.
She said she was still in shock over the incident.
“They risked our lives by loading a bus with more than 30 people on top of a tow truck. The bus alone is big. Loading it on top of another vehicle with people in it is a risk,” she said.
Mrubata said one of the patients was an old woman from Sterkspruit who was going to have an eye operation.
“When the bus stopped, she sat on the wet grass and you could see that she was in pain,” Mrubata said.
She said all the passengers returned to their respective homes and the hospital had arranged for them to return to Frere Hospital on Thursday.
However, health department spokesperson Lwandile Sicwetsha denied that all the passengers returned to Komani without receiving medical treatment.
He said the department’s preliminary investigation suggested that when the bus broke down, another 35-seater bus was immediately dispatched from Komani to take the patients” he said.
Sicwetsha said a Joe Gqabi patient transport vehicle (PTV) passing by was flagged down and it loaded the patients who had dialysis appointments at Frere Hospital.
He also blamed the tow truck operator for transporting patients in the bus on the back of his vehicle.
“Upon arrival, the tow truck operator said he was given instructions to load the vehicle with the patients on board.
“He was informed that a replacement vehicle had already been dispatched.
“He refused to wait for the dispatched vehicle and started loading the patients into the bus,” Sicwetsha said.
It was “unacceptable for patients to be exposed like that”, Sicwetsha said...