Patients can expect to wait two and a half hours, a half an hour longer than last year, at Helen Joseph Hospital’s outpatient department.
According to the Democratic Alliance’s Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health, Jack Bloom, the waiting times for patients have worsened at the hospital.
The Gauteng MEC for Health, Qedani Mahlangu, on 5 October revealed that this year, patients can expect to wait 153 minutes on average at the outpatient’s department, compared to 121 minutes last year.
Patients will also now wait 124 minutes at the casualty department compared to 100 minutes last year, and 70 minutes at the pharmacy, up from 52 minutes last year.
Mahlangu said that steps to reduce waiting times and overcrowding at the hospital are the appointment of queue marshals, the installation of a queue management system and the piloting of pharmacy dispensing machines.
Bloom said he is disappointed that waiting times have increased at the hospital.
“The hospital is close to fully staffed but is often over-crowded, as there is on average a 91 per cent bed occupancy rate. Expansion of the hospital should be considered to better serve the high number of patients,” he said.
He is, however, hopeful that the new automated dispensing machines will cut waiting times at the pharmacy.
