By: Natasha Archary
The Gauteng Department of Health has slammed rumours that Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital (Bara) has run out of food.
This after staff held a picket out the public hospital in Soweto, for poor working conditions.
Speaking to media, nurses and staff claim the hospital has run out of food with nurses having to pay for supplies for patients out of their pockets.
Earlier in the week, the hospital came under the spotlight for not paying interns a salary in two months.
According to reports, residents in Johannesburg and a non-profit organisation donated bread, milk and jam to the hospital.
The situation is said to have worsened and the organisation, Random Acts of Kindness has stepped in to donate 100 loaves of bread.
However, the Department of Health released a brief statement saying that Bara has not run out of food.
The department claims that there is food for patients, but it was just bread that was in short supply.
Claiming the supply capacity issue has since been resolved, the department said there are other types of food at the hospital and patients are not starving.
Meanwhile, the EFF has condemned the inhumane conditions that patients are subjected to at the hospital.
“The fact that a public hospital cannot provide food for poor and indigent patients, is a reflection of the complete collapse of the public healthcare sector and the consequences of the continued austerity measures put in place by government.”
The EFF also saluted the doctors and nurses who have sacrificed their own money, to provide necessary nutrition to ailing patients.
