LIFTS at Addington Hospital made the headlines again last week when water from a water tank at the top of the hospital overflowed into the lift shafts shutting them down and forcing the hospital to divert ambulances with incoming patients to King Edward VIII Hospital.
According to Department of Health spokesperson, Agiza Hlongwane, on Wednesday a gravitational feed water tank overflowed due to a faulty valve, which failed to turn the water off and overfilled the tank, resulting in water flowing into the lift shafts serving the high rise portion of the building.
Hlongwane said ambulances were diverted to King Edward Hospital for six hours while emergency repairs were carried out on the lifts.
Complaints of Addington’s unreliable lifts have been raised regularly by the public and patients stranded on the upper floors and unable to manage the stairs.
“I have been visiting Addington hospital for the past 11 days. Only two lifts work, which you have to get out of if they need to transport a patient to another ward,” a concerned patient’s family member who did not want to be named, told Berea Mail, adding that she was due to collect a patient from Addington who had been discharged, but because no lifts were working and he was not well enough to walk down 12 floors, he couldn’t be collected to go home.
ALSO READ: Health MEC wants erratic Durban hospital’s lifts fixed urgently
The malfunctioning lifts complicated matters on Thursday after a male patient suffered severe injuries after falling from the fourth floor at the hospital.
Authorities had to make use of a crane to reach the patient and lift him back onto the hospital floor so that he could be medically treated.
The Department of Health spokesperson, Ms Noluthando Nkosi said it was not yet known whether the man was a psychiatric patient but he appeared to have experienced an episode of confusion before the fall.
WATCH: See how authorities used a crane to hoist a patient who had fallen from the fourth floor last week, back up into the hospital ward because the lifts were not operational:
Last month KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu voiced her unhappiness over the erratic functioning of the lifts when she inspected the hospital after a fire broke out next to the service lifts on the seventh floor, which were broken at the time, and patients in the paediatric and neo-natal units had to be evacuated.
At the time the MEC expressed her dissatisfaction with the lift service provider, saying she wanted to know why it was unable to ensure that the lifts were always working, like the ones at the many top hotels along the beachfront.
“It gives us an impression that as a Department, we are not a priority to this service provider,”she said.
Hlongwane however pointed out that the disruption in the functioning of the lift service last week was not related to previous causes.
“Even if the lifts were brand new, they would have been adversely affected by this inflow of water, which has never been experienced before,” he said, adding that the department was looking into the cause and how to avoid a similar occurrence happening in future.
He confirmed that two of the four lifts were currently in working order while repairs were being undertaken on the other two lifts.
They are currently working on the service lifts which have also sustained water damage.
However, the KwaZulu-Natal Health Department has assured the community that it is business as usual at the hospital as repairs and restoration is currently underway.
He extended the Department’s apologies to the public for the inconvenience and said they would continue to seek ways to ensure the sustainable smooth operation of the lifts at Addington Hospital.
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