Doctors and staff at 2 Military Hospital are calling for improved security after a gun-toting man walked into the hospital.
|||Cape Town - Doctors and staff at 2 Military Hospital signed a petition calling for improved security after a gun-toting man walked into the hospital’s casualty ward about six weeks ago.
But the plea was completely ignored by the hospital’s management, the SA National Defence Union (Sandu) in the Western Cape has said. Tim Flack, the provincial organiser for Sandu, says staff are still too scared to put their criticism on record to the media.
On Tuesday, the Cape Argus reported that Wynberg Military Base and 2 Military Hospital (which is located at the base) had not had access control or security guards for a number of months. In addition to the hospital, the base primarily consists of housing units for defence force employees. Sandu has confirmed complaints about break-ins and home invasions at the base, and thefts inside the hospital.
In one case, a man carrying a firearm entered casualty during the night. Flack said he was the husband of a woman who had been injured in a shooting, and who was being treated there.
In the absence of security, a lone medical intern had to calm the man down while she waited for the police.
A visit to the base on Thursday confirmed that the base remained unguarded. The defence force promised to respond to media queries about the base’s and hospital’s apparent lack of security, but failed to do so.
Spokesman Lieutenant Romeo Mabote said on Thursday the inquiry was receiving the “priority that it deserves with the relevant respondents”.
Flack lashed out at the department’s tardiness in responding, accusing it of being arrogant and having an “above the law” mentality. Defence analyst Helmoed-Römer Heitman said the lack of security was less likely to do with funding and more likely to do with a “sloppiness and lack of will” that was pervasive throughout the force.
A R600 million upgrade of the base this year suggested that money was available.
daneel.knoetze@inl.co.za
Cape Argus