PATIENTS, who allegedly escaped from the National Psychiatric Referral Hospital, were reportedly caught by residents at Zakhele and Two-Sticks after allegedly attempting to steal clothes from washing lines to change out of their hospital uniforms.
The patients had allegedly escaped from the hospital on Tuesday morning after forcing open a steel security gate in the male ward and walking out of the facility. The escape followed a protest over the hospital’s revised breakfast menu, which patients claimed left them hungry.
Residents from the two Manzini townships said some of the escapees were seen removing clothes from washing lines, so they could blend into the community by changing from their easily identifiable hospital uniforms.
Sources said the patients had scattered into different parts of Manzini after leaving the hospital, making it difficult for authorities to locate them.
Meanwhile, another incident has raised fresh concerns over public safety following the patients’ escape.
A break-in that occurred at about 4am yesterday at Greenfields, Manzini, is suspected by residents to have been committed by one of the escaped psychiatric patients.
According to sources, the intruder entered a house while the occupants were asleep and stole a plasma television, speaker and kettle.
The suspect allegedly carried out the theft in an unusually calm manner.
“He first took one item outside and then casually went back into the house for the others without appearing to be in a hurry,” said a source.
The occupants reportedly woke up and called out to the intruder as he was collecting the remaining items. Instead of abandoning the stolen property, the suspect allegedly fled with all three items.
Sources further claimed that the man had wrapped himself in a pink blanket during the incident.
Residents suspect the break-in may have been linked to one of the patients who escaped from the psychiatric hospital earlier that day, although this has not been officially confirmed.
Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Senior Superintendent Phindile Zwane confirmed that police had been rounding up psychiatric patients, who had been found wandering around the streets of Manzini following the escape.
She, however, said the alleged break-in at Greenfields and the reported theft of clothes from washing lines in Two-Sticks had not been reported to police.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Health Communications Officer Nsindiso Tsabedze maintained that the ministry had still not received any official report regarding the patients’ escape from hospital management.
Hospital sources said the patients escaped after refusing to eat the hospital’s revised breakfast, which consists of two slices of bread with either cheese or peanut butter and unsweetened tea with milk.
Under the previous menu, patients received three slices of bread together with tea containing both milk and sugar.
The revised diet was introduced by the government about a year ago as part of a nutritional programme aimed at reducing starch intake while increasing protein consumption.
However, workers at the hospital claim only the starch reduction was implemented, while the promised increase in protein never materialised, leaving some patients hungry and malnourished.
The unrest reportedly started when some patients threw hot tea at an orderly and flung bread onto the floor before forcing open the steel security gate, which they had allegedly been attempting to break since Monday by striking the padlock with a steel drainage cover. Unable to restrain the patients because some were considered violent, staff watched as they walked out of the hospital and dispersed into the streets of Manzini.
A private nutritionist recently told this publication that while reducing excessive starch could be beneficial, any dietary changes for psychiatric patients should follow proper nutritional assessments and ensure sufficient protein and other nutrients to meet patients’ energy requirements.
Following Tuesday’s dramatic escape, hospital management appears to have temporarily reversed the controversial dietary changes.
Sources said from about 3pm on Tuesday, when afternoon tea was served, until lunchtime yesterday, patients were once again receiving meals under the old diet, including the previous bread portions and other restored meal components, while management assessed the situation. Staff believe the decision was prompted by the unrest and subsequent escape of the patients.
