Six mental patients escape hospital during strike 

By Anita Dangazele

• Six mental health patients broke out of Livingstone Hospital during a security guards’ strike over unpaid wages.

• The Eastern Cape Health Department is asking Gqeberha residents to help find the missing patients.

The Eastern Cape Department of Health is asking for help to find six mental health patients who escaped from Livingstone Hospital during a strike.

The patients broke out on Wednesday while chaos erupted over unpaid wages for security staff.

Security guards started striking on Tuesday night and the protest carried into Wednesday.

During the confusion, six patients escaped through a broken window.

Health Department spokesperson Siyanda Manana said the strike was illegal and unprotected.

“Calm returned to Livingstone Hospital in Gqeberha today [Thursday] after two days of illegal and unlawful strike action by security officers,” said Manana.

He said the department promised to pay the security company, and the guards went back to their posts.

But six patients were still missing.

“The department pleads with members of the community to return the six mental patients that had escaped from Livingstone Hospital as a result of the strike action,” he said.

Livingstone Hospital is one of the biggest hospitals in the Eastern Cape.

It serves more than 2.5 million people and is the only facility offering certain specialist procedures in the province.

This is not the first security breach at the hospital.

Just two weeks ago, three masked men robbed security guards at gunpoint in the guardhouse and took their cellphones.

Pictured above: Livingstone Hospital in Korsten, Gqeberha. 

Image source: DA EC