Theft, and vandalism among problems delaying the reopening of Charlotte Maxeke Hospital

Missed deadlines, theft and vandalised scanners are among many ongoing problems at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital which have contributed to major delays in reopening the facility after a fire there last year.

The Democratic Alliance’s Jack Bloom said it would cost R118 000 to repair the vandalised computerised tomography (CT) scanner at the hospital, which had delayed reopening of the accident and emergency unit.

According to Bloom, Gauteng health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi also said the scanner’s central processing unit was stolen and other electrical items Missed deadlines, theft and vandalised scanners are among many ongoing problems at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital which have contributed to major delays in reopening the facility after a fire there last year.

The Democratic Alliance’s Jack Bloom said it would cost R118 000 to repair the vandalised computerised tomography (CT) scanner at the hospital, which had delayed reopening of the accident and emergency unit.

According to Bloom, Gauteng health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi also said the scanner’s central processing unit was stolen and other electrical items were damaged.

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Bloom said it was vital security was stepped up at the hospital as theft disrupted services.

“I asked the MEC why the hospital’s own security was not held accountable as well, and she said action was being taken against them,” he said.

A doctor, who requested anonymity, said an emergency care unit could not operate without an imaging tool to assist in making a definitive diagnosis or determining the levels of injuries.

She said a CT scanner was an essential imaging modality for an emergency unit and not just “nice to have”.

“It assists clinicians in making a decision on the treatment plan for a patient who presents at an emergency room.

“A normal X-ray alone would be insufficient to diagnose certain conditions and injuries.”

National department of health spokesperson Foster Mohale said the reason there were no walk-ins and ambulances coming in at the moment was because the CT scanner was being fixed.

“All diagnoses are happening at other hospitals and they only transfer patients to Charlotte Maxeke Hospital once they know the extent of their injuries,” he said.

With security measures in question after theft occurred at the construction site in the hospital, Mohale said security had been beefed up.

“The damaged or stolen CPU of the scanner and cables were allegedly an inside job, hence staff members were arrested in connection with the incident,” he said.

While the state of healthcare continues to head downhill, former chair of the South African Medical Association Dr Angelique Coetzee said the quality of healthcare in some hospitals was poor, mostly due to infrastructure and human resource problems as there were not enough doctors in some cases.

Coetzee said there was good healthcare in the private sector hospitals and SA was in the middle regarding progress.

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“We don’t have excellent healthcare, looking at the average, and there are poorer health outcomes with doctors also not earning much,” she said.

“Not everything in the public sector is bad and not everything in the private sector is good,” she added.

Coetzee said that budget constraints were still also a major problem.

She said it was important to lift the poorer healthcare outcomes up to a better standard in order to progress.

“That would need some guts to make difficult decisions to upgrade facilities that were not on par with a good standard,” she said.