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- The nursing manager at the Mahikeng Provincial Hospital has been placed on precautionary suspension.
- They allegedly failed to report to the acting CEO that newborn babies were being placed in cardboard boxes.
- The MEC has since instructed management to find extra incubators and cribs for the hospital.
The North West Department of Health has placed the "Nursing Manager" of the Mahikeng Provincial Hospital's (MPH) neonatal section under precautionary suspension after newborn babies were placed in cardboard boxes at the hospital.
According to the department, the manager had failed to report that the section had to place newborn babies in the boxes due to a lack of resources at the hospital.
The incident came to light after a Facebook post went viral showing babies in brown cardboard boxes, and wrapped in purple hospital blankets, with nasogastric tubes.
In a letter to Health Minister Joe Phaahla and Premier Bushy Maape, MEC Madoda Sambatha listed the chain of events after he received the photo late on Thursday night, saying that he had immediately requested management to probe the matter.
The investigation revealed that the photo was from Mahikeng Provincial Hospital and had been taken on Saturday around 11:00.
On the said day, 56 babies were delivered in the ward, but only 16 incubators and 31 cribs were available.
READ | Mahikeng Provincial Hospital being probed after placing newborn babies in cardboard boxes
"...47 babies had been placed in accordance with proper prescribed procedures and nine babies had no proper incubator or crib. It's reported that four babies were placed in card boxes and others put as two two in each crib. (sic) The report for the whole incident ended with the Nursing Manager who didn't report the incident to the Acting CEO," Sambatha said.
Following the reports, Sambatha said he had since instructed management to find extra incubators and cribs for hospital from the available ones in the province.
"As we speak, 18 additional incubators and cribs have been received and already in MPH," he said.
The MEC has also set up a task team to investigate the entire nursing division at the hospital.
The department has also been ordered to issue a public apology to the families of the affected babies.
"The MPH management will activate a redress process with the affected families. The process of what will happened from precautionary suspension will be determined by relevant labour relations processes," it added.
