Second Unit at Charlotte Maxeke opened since fire
With seven areas in the unit, only two will currently be operational.
The Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla, conducted an on-site visit and led the official re-opening of a second unit at Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital. Since the fire on April 16 last year, only the radiation and oncology unit had been repaired opened and on May 9, the minister would re-open the accident and emergency unit, making that two units so far.
The minister said the unit had actually begun to take patients in by the end of April but the official proceedings of the opening had been delayed. “The unit’s computed tomography (CT scan) was vandalised and cables were stolen. Some of the CT scan’s parts have to be imported but we hope it will be re-assembled by the end of the week,” said Phaahla.
He said that currently, the unit was only taking in very urgent cases as well as referrals, therefore, no walk-ins were allowed and patients should still go where they receive services for now. The minister said the rest of the unit would be re-opened in a phased approach so as not to overwhelm the system.
Adding to that, clinical director at the hospital Dr Punwasi Jayshina said there were seven different areas in the accident and emergency unit and so far, two would be functional. “We hope to open another one by next week,” she added.
The senior hospital staff and government officials together with the press embarked on a walk-about to check the progress of repairs. Head of the accident and emergency trauma unit at the hospital, Professor Maeyane Moeng explained how the newly launched fire protection systems would work.
Phaahla thanked the Solidarity Fund and other stakeholders for assisting with the financing of the repairs. He said it cost R68m to get the unit to where it currently was.
The hospital’s CEO Gladys Bogoshi said they were trying to improve the hospital’s security by launching CCTV that focuses on certain areas, especially those of high risk. She added that as things progress, they would decide which other areas needed more security guards as they had already increased their (security guards) numbers.
Phaahla said some officials had been arrested in connection with messing up maintenance and were apparently involved in vandalism and stealing of cables.
He said work on the other units would be done in phases as well with all of the rehabilitation work of the hospital hopefully to be completed by December 2023.
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