Thembisa Hospital gets additional beds to manage demand
Pressure at the hospital’s Accident and Emergency Unit has already been reduced because of the 36 beds.
To address overcrowding at the Thembisa Provincial Tertiary Hospital, a new Alternative Building Technology (ABT) ward with 36 beds was opened.
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The Thembisa Hospital continually sees a growth in demand for healthcare services because it serves three metros in Gauteng, including Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg, and Tshwane.
However, pressure at the hospital’s Accident and Emergency Unit has already been reduced because of the new 36-bed ABT.
Gauteng MEC for Health and Wellness Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko said there are plans to increase the number of beds at the hospital in the 2023/24 financial year. This will improve capacity.
Currently, the facility is an approved 840 bedded hospital.
“We also plan to build a 300-bedded mother-and-child unit at the facility.
“There are also long-term plans to build another health facility to replace the old Kempton Park Hospital that will alleviate the pressure felt by Tembisa Hospital,” explained MEC Nkomo-Ralehoko.
Tembisa Hospital’s catchment population includes the mushrooming informal settlements around Ivory Park and Diepsloot. The current pressure is also due to inter-provincial relocation, immigration, and a lack of any referring facility in the referral pathway of the hospital.
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Also, according to Nkomo-Ralehoko, the hospital has renovated and reused part of the building, currently an overflow room for patients with acute psychosis and those needing mental health services.
“As part of the efforts to improve care for mental healthcare users, we have ensured the addition of 10 beds to the hospital’s psychiatric ward and eight more beds in the medical wards,” said the MEC.
Other long-term plans to alleviate overcrowding at Tembisa Hospital include building a new hospital in Diepsloot. Premier Panyaza Lesufi announced this during his State of the Province Address.
He said the provincial government was fast-tracking the application with National Treasury to give us our health infrastructure budget in advance.
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