GF Jooste Hospital replacement ‘canned’
Manenberg residents claim Health Department has failed them
‘WE HAVE been cheated.” This was the view expressed by Cape Flats community leaders now it becomes clear that, three years since GF Jooste Hospital was shut down, the provincial Health Department is nowhere near replacing the facility as promised.
“There is a lot of anger and frustration. We have been cheated. They have taken it, closed down the hospital. We, the people of Manenberg, are left to die out here. Indirectly, they (provincial Health Department) are saying get over it and die,” said Manenberg Safety Forum chairperson Roegchanda Pascoe.
Residents were “fed-up” with the delay of the promised hospital, she said.
Residents alleged the closure was the provincial government’s way to strip the area of essential services in poor communities. Pascoe said since the hospital’s closure, they have struggled with access to medical care.
“Ambulances don’t go in here in Manenberg because of the gang violence. There is poor police visibility and vans patrolling the streets. When people need medical attention they have to go to Heideveld, Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha. We don’t
have transport to take ailing people. If this was in other suburbs like Constantia none of this would be happening.
“In poor communities things are dictated to us. There is no public participation or engagement.”
GF Jooste was shut down in 2014 for major reconstruction of about R785 million. At the time it was envisioned that the department would build a district hospital.
The Cape Argus posed several questions to Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo’s spokesperson Zimkhita Mquteni.
Where is this earmarked site for the new GF Jooste?
Research projections show that future health care demand in the Klipfontein area will require a new regional hospital to be built. Currently a range of healthcare services is available to the Klipfontein area through the Lentegeur and Heideveld facilities, the Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha district hospitals, and a system of referrals to Mowbray, Groote Schuur and Red Cross. Access to quality health care has been greatly improved in the area in recent years.
The province has been engaging with its community partners in regards to the overall Manenberg development and urban transformation of area. Included in these discussions has been the community’s need for a regional hospital.
Why has the new location been kept secret by the MEC?
A new regional hospital will require land of no less than seven hectares.
The determination of a location for a new regional hospital will therefore need to be considered through the public-participation processes on the overall development of Manenberg.
When can the people of Manenberg expect to see the completion of the hospital?
The department is currently in the process of technical and operational preparations with the national Department of Health, which is a legislative requirement for the allocation of funding for a new regional facility. Timelines on the building of the facility are subject to the requirements of this process, as well as the necessary public-participation phases.
Until then, which hospitals have been allocated for Manenberg people?
Mbombo also did not respond when asked about residents alleging they had been cheated.
National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) provincial secretary Eric Kweleta said it knew from the start a hospital promised would never materialise.
“As we speak there will never be a hospital in Manenberg. Those people were suffering. GF Jooste before closure was already flooded on a daily basis with patients one can only imagine where that spillage is going to go – to hospitals in other poor communities that are already overburdened.”
GF Jooste had also serviced residents from Gugulethu and Nyanga.
Kweleta said health-care professionals at hospitals in Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain and Heideveld were being compromised.
“The staff is overworked and this affects the service they render.”
Chumile Sali of the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) said it received complaints from Nyanga residents over the closure of the hospital.
“Residents say they have to walk to Heideveld. Khayelitsha is also facing a problem over the spillage of patients coming from other areas.”
Sali said Khayelitsha Hospital has 300 beds while the area’s population was over 400 000.
The hospital is struggling to service its own community, but is expected to take in the influx from GF Jooste.
“The closure of the hospital was unjust and an unwise decision made by provincial government.”