Covid delays 640-bed Klipfontein hospital

AS THE Covid-19 pandemic delayed work on the Klipfontein Regional Hospital, residents are now eager for things to start moving again.

Provincial Health Department spokesperson Mark van der Heever said the project was in the design phase and the completion date, which before was set for 2029, could no longer be determined.

“The Klipfontein Hospital project is currently in its concept design stage with the provincial Department of Public Works in the process of appointing professional services providers. At this stage, we cannot give a practical completion date but we do envisage approximately a 640-bed hospital based on the last planning.

“The current pandemic has forced a shift to the current needs to ensure we have enough beds and oxygen in place to save many lives,” he said.

The planned hospital forms part of the Manenberg Urban Upgrade, which the province in 2018 said would include a regional hospital, a school’s upgrade that will benefit four primary schools, and a new School of Skills for the Manenberg community and surrounds.

Manenberg Business Forum secretary-general Fareed Jansen said while the pandemic caught everyone offguard, it was clear that it was not going anywhere, hence it was time to adapt.

“Nobody planned for Covid-19 but now we know we are going to deal with Covid-19 for the next 10 to 15 years, so we will have to adjust our time schedules and work to adapt,” said Jansen.

“There is already another wave coming, we need to keep working. This hospital is a big need. It is also going to create much-needed jobs in the short term and the long term. We need to get moving now.”

He said that the demolition would have begun this year.

“Basically what should have happened is Silverstream School of Skills, which will be opposite the road on the old hospital site, would have been completed by now. Then the kids would have been moved out of the current school so that the demolishing phase could begin. Then Covid19 happened. We knew immediately everything would be set back, at most, by one to three years. In 2022, building of the first phase of the hospital would have started with a trauma unit and some essentials where they run as a day hospital. Because it is a long-term process of about five to six years, it would be completed in phases.

“There are also plans for a regional ambulance wing. According to my last chat with the provincial engineer, it has been delayed but everything is still on track,” Jansen explained.