Makiwane set to admit patients soon

THE new Cecilia Makiwane Hospital in Mdantsane will admit its first patients on August 20, hospital chief executive Dr Mthandeki Xhamlashe said yesterday.

The much-anticipated move will come five months after Eastern Cape premier Phumulo Masualle officially opened the R1.6billion 560-bed hospital in March.

It took a decade to build the hospital and as of next month, it will finally be opened to patients.

Currently, the hospital is still using its old building.

But Xhamlashe said that would soon be a thing of the past.

The hospital boss said the state-of-the-art equipment at the new building had not been sitting unused, as they had been training staff members on how to use it.

“Currently we are training people and doing occupation training,” Xhamlashe said. “We are doing simulation training with all the staff, from the cleaners to the clinical staff.

“We have learnt from other institutions nationally that people cannot be taken in without training.

“There is a lot to be considered like the labour related issues, radiology and aviation for the helipad.

“We could not train people before the building was done and the equipment installed.

“There is no hospital like this, even in the private sector,” Xhamlashe said.

Health provincial spokesman Sizwe Kupelo echoed Xhamlashe.

“There will be a totally different culture in the new building,” Kupelo said.

“Before the equipment was installed, there was nothing to train people on because the equipment had to be ready.

“This is the first time since the advent of democratic South Africa that a hospital has been built for R1.6-billion.”

Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital was built for R500-million.

“Construction started in 1997 and the first patient was admitted in 2003,” Kupelo said.

Some of the equipment in the new building is automated. —