Drunk Livingstone Hospital official fired

An admissions clerk who was caught on video  doing his duties while drunk at Livingstone Hospital has been fired.

Eastern cape health department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said disgraced official Pumlani Dekile was caught on video footage drunk at work.

“Dekile had been working as an admin clerk at the Livingstone Hospital in Port Elizabeth.  The vigilant patient who was in desperate need of assistance took a video of the intoxicated Dekile.

The move to fire him shows that the department will not sit back and do nothing against officials who bring the department into disrepute  by failing to do their jobs and providing efficient and effective services to patients," Kupelo said.

The video that went viral at the end of April shows Dekile working at the admissions desk even though he can barely speak, slurring his words while holding onto a wall.

The video then shows how a woman tries to get him to open a file for a patient  being treated in the “physician on call” section of the emergency room. Instead of opening a file the man offers to “go check on the patient”.

“Why?” the woman is heard asking. “Are you a doctor?”

“No I am not a doctor,” the man can be heard slurring.

"Such incidents will not be tolerated," Kupelo said.

"We urge all officials to commit themselves to serving the people of the province and to accelerate the much-needed services.

"We cannot afford to fail the people of the Eastern Cape who rely on us for medical assistance."