By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital has been given 90 days to facilitate the exhumation and reburial of a deceased patient.
The acting Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka has released the outcome of the investigations for the third quarter of this year.
Adv Gcaleka found the hospital failed to notify the family of Nhlakanipho Sibusiso Goqo of his death and ultimately gave him a pauper’s burial.
Goqo was buried on 4 February 2020 by Homeward Bound Funeral Home. He was admitted to the hospital on 14 November 2019 and died on 23 November 2019.
The report has published the findings of 15 investigations that have been recently concluded by the institution.
Some of the findings relate to maladministration at the country’s largest hospital.
The investigation has found that the hospital’s protocol on the reporting of unknown deceased people was inadequate at the time of the incident.
It’s further found that the hospital failed to comply with an official circular, which required that unknown deceased people’s names ought to be published in the local newspaper in an attempt to trace their families, prior to resorting to the provision of a pauper’s burial.
The Public Protector has ordered among other things, that hospital’s CEO Nkele Lesia to facilitate the process of exhumation and reburial of the deceased in consultation with his family, within 90 calendar days of the receipt of the Public Protector’s report on the matter.
As a result, it has put measures in place to rectify these processes by drafting a standard operating procedure for mortuary services and designing a quality improvement plan.