Last Friday, the deputy health minister, Dr Joe Phaahla, visited the hospital with other dignitaries from the Department of Health, including the MEC, Dr Thembi Mokgethi.
After a visit to one of the new facility’s halls, the deputy minister confirmed that four Covid-19 patients were being treated at the facility. Another patient was admitted earlier in the week but has since been discharged. Phaala and the hospital’s acting CEO, Dr Shala Mokae, explained that the hospital is being used to treat Covid-19 patients from all over the West Rand as other hospitals become overwhelmed by the increasing number of patients with the third wave of the pandemic.
“We expect Gauteng to reach the peak of the third wave by the end of next week,” said the deputy minister.
According to Mokae, the new hospital will have 125 staff members once it is fully functioning. So far, 41 of these positions have been budgeted for and can be filled.
The recruitment process has still not been finalised and the personnel that will only work during the pan- demic are being appointed on six-month contracts.
However, it has emerged that all was not entirely in place at the hospital. A group of disgruntled workers protested at the gate before the dignitaries arrived. They told the Herald that the main contractor and the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development (DID) still owed them money. They added that all the electrical connections in one of the halls and the ceilings in another part of the hospital had still not been completed. As far as the newspaper could determine, the electrical connections in question were those for general use. The ones for medical equipment are in place.
Meanwhile, the new Covid-19 cases in Merafong and around the West Rand are still increasing rapidly.
According to the Gauteng Department of Health’s statistics for Wednesday, 30 June, Merafong’s total cases stood at 7,272. Of these, 6,296 patients had recovered, while 256 had died of the virus.
The cases in our area increased by 684 during the past week.
Eighteen residents had died and 450 had recovered during the same period. Elsewhere in the West Rand, Mogale City (the Krugersdorp area) recorded 21,708 cases, of which 18,210 had recovered and 538 had died. Of the 11,412 cases in Rand West City (the Randfontein and Westonaria area), 9,651 had recovered and there were 324 fatalities.
