Residents may have to wait to use new hospital
THE Dr Pixley ka Isaka Seme Memorial Hospital is 99% complete but Inanda, Ntuzuma and Kwamashu residents might have to wait a while longer for the hospital to serve their needs because it will be a Covid-19 hospital for now.
During the Department of Health budget speech, Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-zulu revealed they would use 450 beds at the 500-bed hospital, for Covid-19 cases.
“We have worked extremely hard to ensure that progress goes off smoothly towards this brand new R2.8-billion facility,” said Simelane-zulu.
She said when Covid-19 passed, the hospital would be closed, decontaminated and recommissioned. Full-time staff would then be employed.
“For now, we are going to use it purely on the basis that we need the beds that are there. What’s beautiful about it is that it also has a number of ICU beds that we are going to need,” said Simelane-zulu.
Initially, the hospital was said to cost R2.5bn but it later increased to R2.8bn.
The level 2 regional hospital is expected to serve as a referral hospital for surrounding public health-care facilities and also relieve pressure from Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Phoenix, and King Edward VIII Hospital in Umbilo.
Kwamashu residents had been waiting anxiously for the hospital to open, since construction began in January 2015, and it was expected to open at the start of 2019 but was later postponed to December 2019.
A 65-year-old Kwamashu F section resident said the hospital would be beneficial to the community because neighbouring health-care facilities were overcrowded.
From his home, he could see the hospital. He watched it being built from the ground up. He usually went to the Kwamashu Community Health Centre to see the dentist and get his blood pressure checked.
“There are lots of people there and there are delays in other departments,” he said.
He also said the community had fought hard to have a hospital in the area.
Standing outside the hospital with a walking stick, a 53-year-old woman said because of her brittle bones, she needed to use an Uber to get to Bester Clinic or Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital, and a single trip would cost her more than R20 for either.
“If the hospital opened, maybe they would be able to help me so I can get an early pension,” she said.
“We’re struggling here. You go to Mahatma Gandhi early in the morning and only return home at 7pm. People die on the benches because it’s full. But there’ll be relief once this hospital opens.”