A hospital boss who tried to prevent the second day of the KZN Road Traffic Inspectorate fitness tests, denied she was "overreacting".
|||Durban - A hospital boss who tried to prevent the second day of the ill-fated KZN Road Traffic Inspectorate fitness tests has denied that she was “overreacting”.
Northdale Hospital chief executive Francis Margaret du Preez told the RTI commission of inquiry into the tests on Thursday she needed to find the cause of the chaos at the hospital’s casualty ward, and drove to the scene of the tests at Pietermaritzburg’s Harry Gwala Stadium.
She needed to witness the proceedings of the recruitment fitness training tests so she could take appropriate action, she testified.
However, RTI legal representative Ravi Padayachee SC said the number of patients admitted to the hospital’s casualty ward on December 27 and 28 last year did not warrant such an “extraordinary overreaction” from Du Preez.
This overreaction by the chief executive, he said, undermined Du Preez’s credibility as a witness.
Du Preez, a registered professional nurse for 30 years, said she had wanted to go to the stadium because of the chaos at the Northdale Hospital casualty ward on December 27, to ensure the hospital was not overwhelmed again the next day. An average 80-100 patients were admitted to the hospital’s casualty ward daily. On the morning of December 27, the headcount was 230.
Du Preez told the commission that none of the department officials heeded the hospital’s call to stop or postpone the event.
“We tried to approach an RTI official in charge and were told that she did not have time,” Du Preez said.
Padayachee said the official in question would deny that she said this to Du Preez.
“I am telling the truth,” Du Preez said, adding that when she approached the finish line of the fitness test race, she saw participants writhing on the ground in pain and delirium.
The commission was appointed by KZN Premier Zweli Mkhize to probe the deaths of eight people who took part in a 4km run at the stadium on December 27 and 28.
This formed part of a fitness test for RTI job applicants. More than 34 000 people qualified to apply for the 90 advertised trainee posts.
Also testifying on Thursday was Vusi Ntuli, an employee of the Msunduzi Municipality, stationed at the Alexandra Swimming Pool near the Harry Gwala Stadium.
He said that on December 27, he and other lifeguards at the pool saw fitness test participants struggling as they ran.
“Me and my colleagues filled water into containers and handed them out to runners because we could see that they were not coping,” Ntuli said.
When one participant collapsed, he alerted an RTI officer, who did nothing to assist, he said.
Daily News