Reassurance on efforts to fix Charlotte Maxeke Hospital
There have been several hurdles experienced on the way to making Charlotte Maxeke Hospital fully functional again.
There have been several hurdles experienced on the way to making Charlotte Maxeke Hospital fully functional again.
The Gauteng Member of the Executive Committee (MEC) of Health, Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi, reassured the public that government remains committed to doing everything humanly possible to ensure the remedial work at the hospital is done as quickly as possible with minimal delays.
Mokgethi acknowledged that public calls and concerns from the health sector about the pace of work to refurbish the hospital following the fire incident are not without merit given the impact of a partially functioning at the hospital on other nearby facilities such as Helen Joseph and Chris Hani Baragwanath hospitals.
“Our goal is to see the facility being fully functional.”
She added that the partial handover of the accident and emergency unit commenced on March 10. This means that from here onwards the following will take place to get the section ready for handover:
- Deep cleaning of the areas that are handed back to the hospital
- The City of Johannesburg will be checking for the compliance of the areas and issuing operational certificates. City Council application and submission was made on the first week of March
- Installation of health technology equipment
- Retraining of staff on evacuation procedures
- Recalling of the hospital’s casualty staff that were placed at Chris Hani and Helen Joseph hospitals, including surrounding facilities to reopen the casualty at Charlotte.
According to the Gauteng Department of Health, the work to complete the casualty section suffered a setback recently due to theft of copper piping, electrical wiring and circuit breakers from the works and disruption of the site by the local community.
Security at the site has since been beefed up with restrictions to the affected areas. The department appeals to the community to help safeguard this facility as it provides much-needed health services. Those with information that can assist law enforcement to apprehend perpetrators are urged to contact their nearest police station.
Meanwhile, the newly appointed implementing agent, the Development Bank of Southern Africa at the instruction of the Department of Health, is finalising the development of a detailed implementation plan to be signed off before the end of March. This follows the handover of all the project files by the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development and Property Management on March 4.
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