Caswell Tlali
MASERU — A patient from Mokhotlong was stranded at Queen ’Mamohato Memorial Hospital for more than a week because there was no transport to take her back home.
’Manthati Letela was referred to Queen ’Mamohato on August 19 by the Mokhotlong Hospital for an urgent operation which was done on the following day.
She was discharged on August 21 but was forced to remain at the hospital because there was no transport to take her back to Mokhotlong
She said the ambulance from Mokhotlong would come to Queen ’Mamohato to collect other patients but leave her behind.
Letela said spending more time in hospital even after she was discharged gave her a feeling that she was sickly.
She said as the days passed by she would wait in anticipation for the nurses at Queen ’Mamohato to tell her that the Mokhotlong ambulance had come to collect her but they never did.
“Many days passed and confusion mounted in my mind,” Letela said.
She was also concerned that she would incur extra costs because of her extended stay at the hospital.
“I don’t know if I paid any extra fees because it was not mentioned when I was finally collected by the Mokhotlong ambulance on Thursday”.
“It has always been one of my major concerns while at the hospital but I never asked when the ambulance finally took me back to Mokhotlong,” she said.
“Also at the Mokhotlong Hospital where I paid this was never mentioned. I was only relieved that I was being discharged from hospital.”
Queen ’Mamohato Memorial Hospital spokesperson, Limpho Seeiso, said she was not aware of Letela’s case but confirmed that patients referred from Mokhotlong and Qacha’s Nek spend two or three more days in the hospital after being discharged.
“It is understandable why they take more days with us at the Queen ’Mamohato Memorial Hospital because Mokhotlong and Qacha’s Nek are places very far from here,” Seeiso said.
“It is cost-effective for the hospitals from those districts to come collect their patients when they have brought others,” she said.
“Every two to three days they come to this hospital bringing referred patients.”
She said immediately after a patient is discharged the hospital that referred them is notified so that it can come to collect them.
Health Ministry spokesperson ’Mateboho Mosebekoa said the policy was the hospital that refers patients is the one that collects them from the Queen ’Mamohato Memorial Hospital.
“The hospital that refers you to another is obligated to collect you immediately upon your discharge,” Mosebekoa said.
She also said the patient is the one liable to pay any fees for the days spent at a hospital.
“The patient is the one who was occupying the hospital bed and eating the hospital food and so is the one paying,” she said.
Mosebekoa said tomorrow she will investigate why Letela stayed longer at the the hospital after being discharged.