The Gauteng Department of Health has had to issue official statements to the public several times in the last two years regarding information about its hospitals shared on social media in videos or posts usually painting facilities like Helen Joseph Hospital in a negative light.

The latest sees the department issue a “clarification” on a new bout of information being spread on social networks about Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (formerly Johannesburg General) and specifically its urology department.

“The allegations that patients were being turned away due to the shortage of beds in the Urology Department are misinformed and misguided. Like in any hospital across the world, elective operations are postponed now and then due to prioritisation of emergency operations,” Gauteng Health shares in its statement.

“However, whenever an operation is postponed, the patients or family is always informed and there is always a catch-up plan to perform the operations as soon as possible.”

Some users have shared on social media that they have been waiting to have an operation at Charlotte Maxeke for several years, with the procedures becoming postponed again and again.

Gauteng Health investigates Helen Joseph “cockroach treatment” claims

In September, a viral video was shared across Facebook, X and TikTok by South Africans, recorded by veteran broadcaster Tom London amid his stay at Helen Joseph Hospital.

Among other things, London describes the poor treatment of patients at Helen Joseph Hospital, including an allegation that a patient was left in their shared room after he was deceased and that the doctors and nurses were laughing about it.

“They treat the patients with absolute destain and disrespect, I’m talking about from the young Wits students all the way up the chain in this hospital. I’ve never seen a level of disrespect for human beings like this in my life,” a furious London says.

Ever quick to hop on social media to defend itself, Gauteng Health responded that the matter would undergo an investigation soon after it caught wind of the video’s reaction.

The Gauteng MEC for Health Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko even issued a statement on TV for eNCA in order to the respond to the viral video.

“He was well when he left, when he arrived he was not well. He received all the best treatment that he could get in any hospital including the Medi-Clinic now where he is. What he is getting there, we would get the same treatment,” said Nkomo-Ralehoko.

Social media revelations light a fire under the department because they act as a conduit for users to gather and commiserate about their experiences in hospitals in control of the Gauteng government.

Beneath shares of London’s video, users speak their mind.

“Helen Joseph hospital is a death trap, atmosphere there will kill you more than sickness itself,” shared one, demanding Gauteng Health fix its problems.

“This patient is being truthful. I once visited @HelenJosephHos on a Friday evening with a relative, and a large rat ran across the reception area. It was quite distressing,” shared another.

“Everything Tom has said is so valid. I’ve seen this with my own eyes everytime my mom goes there for meds, treatment and ops. This hospital needs a rehaul it’s so bad,” shared yet another, and there are more and more and more about most public hospitals in Gauteng.

The fake doctor

Near the end of last year, Gauteng Health faced another scandal as it was unearthed that a man without any qualifications was using the facilities at Helen Joseph to record content for his TikTok channel, pretending to be a healthcare professional, giving medical advice to thousands of followers and even selling “medicine.”

In this case, it was users on social media that pieced together that the fake doctor “Matthew Lani” was in fact not a doctor at all. Only after this came to light did the department seek to act by opening a criminal case, begging questions on how an unregistered fake was allowed access to secure facilities for months if not years.

“Lani managed to weave his way into the system pretending to be in the employ of Helen Joseph Hospital where he moved around the hospital corridors curating content for social media,” the department said at the time.

“At the time there was nothing that raised suspicion that he was not a person in the employ of the facility,” it added. In fact, the department was aware of Lani even before users – not government officials – were able to see through his lies.

It said that on two occasions, Gauteng Health sought to investigate claims made by Lani on his social channels, including a claim from Lani that interns were not being paid. In fact, Helen Joseph’s management contacted Lani and asked him to present himself to human resources in order to sort out his non-payment claims.

Lani, of course, never did. He was subsequently arrested in a further attempt to infiltrate the hospital.

One thing that Gauteng Health and most of the Gauteng Provincial Government can be commended on, is that they take social media seriously and are quick to use social platforms to inform residents of Africa’s wealthiest region about the ongoing developments surrounding hospitals in Gauteng, especially when users catch wind of them first.

[Image – Photo by Gilles Lambert on Unsplash]