A fire at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital in April has resulted in its partial closure. This has placed severe strain on the Gauteng health system. (Archive photo: Masego Mafata) The Gauteng health department has taken over the reconstruction of the hospital from the provincial Department of Infrastructure Development.
Health workers at Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg say the increased patient load has placed severe strain on the hospital. The hospital is currently the only functioning tertiary emergency facility in central Johannesburg.
Doctors say the 10-month closure of the emergency unit and psychiatric ward at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital has resulted in Helen Joseph Hospital treating more patients, many of whom would ordinarily be treated at Charlotte Maxeke.
Charlotte Maxeke was forced to close on 16 April after a fire. The hospital opened partially in June, offering some medical and radiation oncology services, renal care, high-risk maternity care and an intensive care unit for Covid-19 patients. Patients requiring other services have been referred to hospitals in Charlotte Maxeke’s cluster, which includes Helen Joseph and Chris Hani Baragwanath hospitals. At great cost to life and health, the failure to reopen the Charlotte Maxeke hospital is the latest sad chapter and lesson in what happens when prima facie evidence of corruption is ignored by the Gauteng government and premier and when dishonest officials are allowed to continue their work in proximity of multibillion-rand contacts.
GroundUp spoke to a few staff members at Helen Joseph Hospital. They asked to remain anonymous because they are not allowed to speak to the media.
“Yesterday there were about 145 patients waiting in our emergency department. Between 70 and 80 patients had been treated, processed through the system and were waiting for beds in wards. The waiting period for beds has increased from a couple of hours to days,” said one doctor.
The doctor said there’s been a minor increase in staff members to the emergency unit to help them cope with this load. There are about eight doctors treating more than 100 patients per shift, the doctor said.
“Staff in the emergency department are essentially becoming ward staff, meaning the workload has increased from giving initial medications and resuscitative medications to treating patients who need repeat doses and repeat scripts. The emergency department has become multiple wards in one and we are not coping,” the doctor said.
The doctor said Helen Joseph has capacity for seven resuscitation patients, but they have […]
