A popular hospital in South Africa issues out about 900 files daily, Monday to Friday but do not properly store or stack the files.
The result is that over a million files are stuffed on shelves and scattered on floor. And the computer that assists in locating files has broken down for almost a year and everything is done manually.
On January 23, diarrhoea patient, Joseph Ntuli visited King Edward VIII Hospital in Durban. He found a doctor who was ready to treat him provided he produced his medical record.
Ntuli, 56, went to the registry only to be ordered by a registry staff to retrieve his file from the pile on the floor or from the shelves.
He was only able to find his medical records after more than eight agonizing hours.
He had to interrupt his search several times to go the toilet.
His lengthy ordeal searching for his medical records started early in the morning when he saw a hospital doctor who told him to fetch his card from the file room.
“But when I got there, a staff member asked me to search for my own medical file from a heap stacked on the floor and another piled high on the shelves.
“I only found my card after 3pm – more than eight hours after arriving at the hospital on January 23.
“Finding my file among this heap was like looking for a needle in a haystack,” he said. “I am angry and tired. And because of frustration, I had to take a nap on the couch in the file room for 20 minutes.”
Ntuli said he did not eat as the doctor had advised against eating until blood samples had been taken to determine his illness.
Two hospital staff members, who sought anonymity, said the lack of space to store cards often led to stand-offs between staff and angry patients after cards could not be found.
They claimed the hospital authorities had known about this problem for years, but were unwilling to sort it out.
“Every day we are being insulted by outraged patients.”
The other source claimed he had even been challenged to a fist fight by an angry patient.
“He asked me to follow him outside for a fight. He was furious after being unable to find his file.
“We are understaffed here and the process of loading and retrieving information is manual. There is a massive pile of files here, probably more than a million. We have no space to file them, hence they are scattered on the floor. The computer has never been replaced after it was broken five years ago,” the employee said.
“Management are dragging their feet when it comes to real issues. Searching for a particular file is not easy. I have cuts on my fingers from pulling tightly stacked files. The sharp corners and pins leave us with scars.”
Opening a new file for a patient was an expensive process, the employee said, explaining that when a record was lost, all the medical tests which had previously been carried out, had to be repeated.
“We want to expose this. Taxpayers’ money is misused here.”
Some patients also insisted on keeping their cards for fear of them getting lost.
“The department has gone to the dogs. Pensioners are getting a raw deal and made to run around for files. We considered a ‘go slow’ but because we empathise with the patients, we decided against it,” said a hospital employee.
Meanwhile, the hospital’s CT scanner and X-ray machine have not been repaired after being reported broken last July. Patients needing these services are transferred to other public hospitals.
KwaZulu Natal Department of Health spokesman, Sam Mkhwanazi, said the department was aware of the shortage of space in the card office and there were plans to extend the area.
Department policy forbids patients from entering the card office.
“Between 750 and 1 000 cards are issued to patients a day between Mondays and Fridays. The department does experience challenges in locating cards from time to time due to, among other things, misfiling, or in cases where patients leave the hospital with the cards,” he said.
Mkhwanazi confirmed that the CT scanner at King Edward VIII was not working.
“Upon realizing it was not serviceable, the department immediately embarked on a process to replace it,” he said.
“Regarding service delivery, patients who need CT scanner services are referred to other facilities within eThekwini health district, at the discretion of doctors”, he added.