National health dept roped in to repair Charlotte Maxeke hospital

Ten months since the fire incident at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, the Gauteng government has roped in the national Department of Health to repair the facility.

The Gauteng provincial government made the announcement on Thursday morning during a media briefing at the facility.

The project to repair the hospital is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.

Charlotte Maxeke hospital

A fire in April last year ravaged parts of Charlotte Maxeke hospital, and left many patients with no access to the facility.

The director-general in the premier’s office, Thabo Masebe, said Premier David Makhura signed a proclamation to transfer all functions relating to the refurbishments at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital from the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development (GDID) to the national Department of Health.

Masebe said the delays in repairing the hospital were due to no agreement being in place between the health department and the GDID, among other reasons.

“The Department of Health did not agree on the scope of work and the budget that was proposed by the Department of Infrastructure Development…

“The premier then made the determination that he was going to transfer the function of this hospital from the Department of Infrastructure Development to the Department of Health,” Masebe said.

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He said the transfer would therefore assist in fast-tracking the project of repairing the facility before the end of next year.

“The transfer of functions made it possible for the national Department of Health, at the request of the Gauteng Department of Health to appoint the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) as the implementing agent for the remedial work at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital.”

Project manager appointed

The head of infrastructure at the national Department of Health, Ayanda Dakela, was appointed to lead the project.

“My role is to ensure that this facility is fully functional within a short space of time,” he said.

Dakela said in the last two weeks, an assessment of the facility was done on the areas where the fire caused extensive damage.

He said the first phase of the project will be completed at the end of February this year and the accident and emergency section would be handed over to clinicians for resumption of services.

Dakela said they had developed a project plan, which included things that can be done immediately to repair the hospital, such as the erection of temporary parking bays, while work is being done on the structures of the building.

“We are in a space which is regulated by the Occupational Health and Safety Act, we wanted to make sure that we identify those areas so that we comply accordingly. We have also identified areas where they are related to infrastructural issues,” he said.

Last year, Gauteng Health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi revealed that about 2,000 outpatients a day could not be treated at the hospital after it was damaged by the fire, while other hospitals had to cope with extra patients referred to them.

Only 489 beds in the 1,000-bed hospital were in use.

Mokgethi revealed this in a written answer to questions posed by the DA’s spokesperson for health in the province, Jack Bloom, in the Gauteng legislature.

At the time, the MEC could not give a firm date for the opening of all departments, as this depended on work done by the department of infrastructure development.

Additional reporting by Ina Opperman

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