The cards serve as beds for families accompanying patients in hospitals in Luanda.

Without money to pay for hotels or transportation, dozens of people are choosing to sleep in makeshift cardboard “beds” outside Luanda hospitals to be close to their families and provide care while they wait for appointments.

At 6 a.m., the queue of visitors grows thicker outside Lucrezia Paim’s maternity ward, the largest in Luanda, and on the surrounding streets mothers, grandmothers and aunts wait for news about pregnant women and women in labor.

Like Lucia Manuel, who is accompanied by two other family members and is waiting for her daughter to be discharged so she can meet her new granddaughter.

“We arrived yesterday, and we were already accepted, thank God, the girl has already had a child, all by the grace of the Lord,” he told Lusa.

The resident of Katete, about an hour and a half away, suggests financial constraints leave her with no alternative but to improvise an overnight stay outside the maternity ward while she waits for her daughter and granddaughter to minimize treatment costs. transport.

“We slept on canvas [cartões]” he said, adding that each costs 250 kwanzas (about 30 cents).

I only took a backpack with clothes and water, regretting that I didn’t have “amount” to buy food.

“We have nothing to eat, we have nothing, the baby doesn’t even have clothes because we didn’t expect her to give birth to the baby because he was only seven months old,” he told Lusa, explaining that his daughter had to be transported to ambulance from another hospital, and she hopes the rest of her family will come to support her.

Paula Evaristo has been in this place since Monday, having come from “30”, an area an hour’s drive from Luanda, waiting for her daughter, who was hospitalized after the birth of twins with complications.

“We sleep right here on the street and we don’t know what day she will leave,” she said, complaining that she was “chased” from the hospital door by police and ended up paying 200 kwanza to a police officer. backyard owner so she could renew her card and stay overnight.

Paula complains about the cold of those sleeping on the street and the lack of money for food, saying that all she can do is “put a cloth around her stomach.”

Waiting for families also creates business opportunities. There are those who pay to clear out their backyards and those who take advantage of the opportunity to sell sandwiches, cookies, water, diapers and baby wipes with an almost guaranteed clientele.

This is the case with Lydia Hova, whose only regret is that she does not have new clients because the police are “chasing them away.”

“For example, last night I couldn’t do anything, we only earned 1,500 (kwanzaa, that is, 1.7 euros). How will I pay for rent and children’s education?” he says.

A similar scenario is happening outside the Americo Boavida Hospital, where a 25-year-old man who was outside died this week after the medical team on duty allegedly refused to help him.

There are also cards or “luando” (mats) laid out at night, street vendors and family members walk around waiting for information about patients.

José Armando came to accompany his 12-year-old nephew, who had an accident two days ago while playing near a wall, and stressed that he was being “well taken care of.”

“He went up to the (operating) room and we already had information that he had been operated on,” he stressed, saying that he stayed there to accompany the family and be with the patient “because something could have happened during the night.”

He says this is the second time his relative has received care at HAB and that he enjoyed the service “despite some delays.”

“Grandfather” Andre Mavinge, whose niece was hospitalized for a month and a half, is dissatisfied with the delay in treatment and complains that “in order to treat a patient, you need to get your hands on it” (give money).

He also points out the restrictions on visits and adds that if he wants to see his niece outside the agreed upon hours (3:00 to 4:00 p.m.), he will have to pay 100 kwanzaa (11 cents) for admission.

“If you don’t pay 100 kwanzas, you won’t get in,” he criticizes, but praises the work of doctors “who provide good care” despite the fact that they don’t have much to do.

“We are sick too, we who came to care for the sick. The cold is upon us, the sun is beating down on us, we have no right to enter where there is shade. We are all sick, there are no people in Angola who are doing well,” he states.

HAB management announced the suspension of the medical team following the death of the young man this week and reported the incident, caused by the alleged negligence of the on-duty medical team, to the Criminal Investigation Service.

Images circulating on social networks show the corpse of a young man lying on the ground near a residential building located in the city’s Rangel district.

Lusa tried to contact the hospital management, but was told that an investigation was underway and only after that they would provide further clarification to the press.