30 Esidimeni child patients soon to have a home
'Some have been placed at Weskoppies and Sterkfontein hospitals and others at NGOs'
A disability centre in Westonaria has been identified as a suitable home for some of Life Esidimeni’s destitute patients.
The Korekile Home for Cerebral Palsied Children will take in 30 former Esidimeni patients. Provision has already been made to accommodate these patients. The home recently acquired a licence to take in 150 children – 30 more than they were previously able to take in.
Korekile recently built a stimulation centre for their children, after two years of fund-raising. The centre is already in operation and is equipped to take Esidimeni’s child patients.
Like Esidimeni, Korekile is live-in facility, where the children have round the clock care.
The centre has grown from strength to strength over the 20 years of its existence, and Frank Khumalo from the home said he is eager to take in and help the Esidimeni children.
The closure of Life Esidimeni has sparked outrage among family members of the former centre’s psychiatric patients. The centre closed earlier this year, leaving some 2 000 psychiatric patients with no place to go.
“It remains to be seen whether all the patients who used to be accommodated by Esidimeni will be properly looked after,” said Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health.
In a family briefing only months before Esidimeni closed its doors, family members were told that their relatives would be transferred to other psychiatric hospitals, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or would be placed back home, depending on the level of their disability.
Family members of the Esidimeni patients protested outside the Gauteng Health Department Head Office in early June, because they were and still are unhappy about the transfers from the centre.
“Some have been placed at Weskoppies and Sterkfontein hospitals and others at NGOs that do not appear to have the staff or expertise to look after them,” Bloom said.
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at randfonteinherald@caxton.co.za (remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 693 3671.
Also read:
New care centre to be opened at former Life Esidimeni
Still no home for hundreds of pshyciatric patients
For free daily local news on the West Rand, also visit our sister newspaper websites Roodepoort Record, Krugersdorp News and Get It Joburg West Magazine
Remember to visit our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages to let your voice be heard!
