Pregnant women at Plumtree District Hospital are exposed to a high risk of infection as maternity ward floors are not being cleaned timeously.
A senior employee at the hospital, who spoke to NewsDay on condition of anonymity, said that the issue has been ongoing for about four months. Said the official:
There is an increased risk of infection because normally after every delivery, there is supposed to be mopping of floors, because of the blood involved in the delivery process.
We are supposed to make more deliveries despite the dirty floors. We are having about six deliveries a night without any cleaning done.
Every shift needs a general hand, surprisingly general hands are no longer coming for night shifts. They knock off at 4 pm and there will be no cleaning until the next day.
This other night duty we delivered around 11 pm and the whole night we kept conducting deliveries.
The thing is, the blood ends up drying on the floor since there is no one to mop. It is almost three to four months since this issue started.
Contacted for comment by NewsDay, District Nursing Officer (DNO) Joe Nganunu said he had not received any complaints but promised to investigate the issue.