Tambo Memorial is unsafe, new facility needed – Health MEC
The Gauteng MEC for Health, Gwen Ramokgopa, last week conceded that there is no saving Boksburg's 112-year-old Tambo Memorial Hospital.
In fact, she has admitted that “most areas” of the hospital contravene the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
But, this is not new news.
In June 2015, the Advertiser reported that the then MEC for Health, Qedani Mahlangu, said a new hospital was on the cards – an announcement that came after a fire had destroyed a storage facility at the hospital just weeks before.
At that stage, Mahlangu said replacing the current structure would be more cost-effective than maintaining the existing facility and that her department would try to speed up the process to construct the new hospital.
Two and a half years down the line, things are still in the very early planning stages said Jack Bloom, Member of Provincial Legislature and DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC.
He blames the state of affairs at the hospital on the lack of maintenance and is very concerned about the unsafe environment patients have to endure in the meanwhile – and probably for the next ten years, at least.
About six weeks ago, Bloom posed a number of questions related to the hospital’s state of deterioration to Ramokgopa.
He said he received her response last week.
Ramokgopa said: “The hospital has been subjected to conditional assessment and has also been recommended for replacement. In the meantime, statutory maintenance is being done.”
Bloom said the bottom line is that there is no budget for a new hospital which, according to the MEC, will cost at least R800-million.
“Very little progress has been made and things are at a very early planning stage. While it’s a highly undesirable situation, I’m afraid the prospect of a new hospital is remote.
“For the MEC to admit the hospital does not comply to the Occupational Health and Safety Act is a big admission.
“All we can do is hope that nothing bad happens there because of this, until the new hospital is eventually built.
“It is ironic that a hospital named after Oliver Tambo is in such a bad state as we have just commemorated his 100th birthday.”
* The Boksburg-Benoni Hospital (BBH) opened its doors to 70 patients on August 17, 1905. The name changed to Tambo Memorial Hospital on April 17, 1997, in honour of Oliver Reginald Tambo.
