R500 million Covid-19 hospital stands unfinished as cases continue to surge: DA
A R500 million Covid-19 hospital on the West Rand stands unfinished and is unlikely to be of any use to patients amid the second wave of infections in the country.
Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize reported that as of 3 January 2021 there have been 11,859 new cases of Covid-19, taking the total reported to 1,100,748.
Deaths have reached 29,577 (a daily increase of 402), while recoveries have climbed to 903,679, leaving the country with a balance of 167,429 active cases.
Currently, Gauteng accounts for the largest portion of reported cases, just under 300,000 or 27% of the total. However, the province is ranked third in terms of active cases, with just under 32,000 infections in the province.
According to Democratic Alliance MP, Jack Bloom, despite the growing crisis in the province, the government has severely bungled the refurbishment of a hospital donated by AngloGold Ashanti to assist with Covid-19 patients.
R500 million was put into the remodelling of the hospital to make it ready for 176 high care/ICU patients – but now it sits incomplete and unready, with officials allegedly admitting that it would have been cheaper to build a new hospital from the ground up, Bloom said.
“Last week local councillors visited this former mine hospital…they found it closed with a number of completed wards but mostly unfinished construction. The completed areas had no equipment and there was no indication that the hospital will be ready for use anytime soon,” Bloom said.
The MP said that the hospital was in reasonable condition when it was handed over, and the plan was to remodel it with 176 high care/ICU beds for acute Covid-19 cases.
“Only 56 beds have been completed because of on-site strike action by contractors, and payment to the 8 contractors has been stopped pending the outcome of an investigation by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) into possible corruption,” he said.
“It is very unlikely that any Covid-19 patients will be treated at this hospital in the near future.”
Bloom said that an official admitted at a meeting of the Gauteng Legislature’s Health Committee that it would have been cheaper to build the hospital from scratch.
“This is a colossal misuse of money that could have been spent at other hospitals to assist them in treating the rapidly escalating Covid-19 cases, some of whom will need high care or ICU beds.”
The revelation about the hospital follows weekend reports from health experts and workers that government was warned about the poor state of hospitals in the country, and their lack of readiness to handle the second wave of Covid-19, but did not do much to fix the situation.
The experts said that audits of hospitals done in September showed that major improvements were needed, but none of these materialised by the time the second wave hit.
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