A team from the University of KwaZulu-Natal has also since been tasked with investigating the matter and is expected to produce a report with recommendations by Friday.
Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu said more than 70 hospitals in the province were given a directive to establish flu clinics to help screen patients for Covid-19.
"They were even informed that if they could not identify the relevant section within the hospital … because some of our hospitals have spatial challenges … They could take money from their budgets and set up a temporary structure in order to ensure that there’s space to put in patients," said Simelane-Zulu.
"Many of our hospitals have done that. The problem that we’re having here at Northdale is that you have people who are employed to do a job, but they do not. They wait for others higher up to do their work.
"You get to the facility and find that management does not see anything wrong with having a tent with open spaces at the top, which lets in air."
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Managers at KZN hospital suspended after man's death in 'parking lot ward'
Image: Sandile Ndlovu
Two senior officials at Northdale Hospital in Pietermaritzburg have been suspended following the death of a man who was treated in a makeshift ward in the hospital's parking lot on Saturday.
The suspensions of the medical and nursing managers come after radio personality Hlengiwe Khumalo took to social media on Monday to share a video of a parking lot that had been converted into a ward where her father, Sibusiso Khumalo, died from hypoxia on Saturday. The condition occurs when there is a lack of oxygen in the body.
"The precautionary suspensions are to allow for an investigation into the demise of a 67-year-old man in a hospital ward in the early hours of Saturday morning, after he had reportedly received medical treatment in a partially covered flu clinic on the hospital's parking lot," said the department in a statement on Wednesday.
WATCH | KZN man dies in makeshift ward in hospital parking lot
Khumalo said her father had been taken to the hospital on Friday night complaining about a tight chest. She said he had told the nurses that he was feeling cold, but they said there was nothing they could do.
According to the health department, a new tent with heating had since been erected at the hospital on Wednesday, while its infrastructure development unit made plans for a more solid structure.
Image: Supplied
A team from the University of KwaZulu-Natal has also since been tasked with investigating the matter and is expected to produce a report with recommendations by Friday.
Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu said more than 70 hospitals in the province were given a directive to establish flu clinics to help screen patients for Covid-19.
"They were even informed that if they could not identify the relevant section within the hospital … because some of our hospitals have spatial challenges … They could take money from their budgets and set up a temporary structure in order to ensure that there’s space to put in patients," said Simelane-Zulu.
"Many of our hospitals have done that. The problem that we’re having here at Northdale is that you have people who are employed to do a job, but they do not. They wait for others higher up to do their work.
"You get to the facility and find that management does not see anything wrong with having a tent with open spaces at the top, which lets in air."
© TimesLIVE
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