Ex-TB hospital vandalised
A YEAR after the closure of Fort Grey TB Hospital, the building now lies vandalised, with medical waste strewn around the property.
When the Dispatch visited the premises on Friday, overgrown grass, broken windows and doors, leaking water pipes and medical waste greeted the team.
Former hospital manager Zac Venter said the provincial health department had rushed to move patients from Fort Grey to Nqubela TB Hospital in Mdantsane.
“The building was supposed to be handed over to the East London TB Association but that did not happen. The asset verification has not been finished by the department, and the keys have not been handed over,” he said.
“The department left without properly cleaning and disinfecting the hospital. I know the department will deny this but that is how it is. The place has now been vandalised. There was even a fire there last year.”
Provincial health department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo denied any wrongdoing by the department, saying the medical waste was supposed to be collected by a third party. He did not say why it had not been collected, and gave no further details.
The 162-bed hospital, which served patients from Alfred Nzo, Joe Gqabi, Buffalo City, Amathole, OR Tambo and Chris Hani municipalities, treated close on 500 outpatients each month.
Last year, the Dispatch reported that Zeal Health Initiative, a consortium of health professionals from the Eastern Cape who are now based in Johannesburg, would be the new tenants.
The consortium could not be reached at the time of writing, but last year Dr Hlombe Makuluma, speaking on behalf of it, said it had applied to the provincial department of health for a licence for a mental health hospital.
Makuluma told the Dispatch they wanted to create “a step-down facility for mild mental health cases such as depression”.
“We’d also like a fully-fledged medical centre looking at primary health issues, with a general practitioner and a dentist. So this won’t be for mental health issues alone; it will also be for the community in the form of a general clinic.” —