Water cuts put Joburg hospitals in danger
Nurses can’t even wash their hands after a 10-hour shift
● First-year nursing student Laaika Amod ended a 10-hour shift at Helen Joseph Hospital, then couldn’t wash her hands.
She had been looking after 30 patients and hand washing was essential to her routine. But there was no running water.
“If things aren’t sorted, people are going to start dying of infection,” said Amod.
She described a situation at the Johannesburg public hospital that was hopeless. Each ward had only a drum of drinking water.
“I don’t understand how this hospital is managing to function,” she said.
“Last Thursday, I had a 10-hour shift and there was no water. No patient could be bathed. There was no clean linen for an entire day. I look after 30 patients and I cannot wash my hands. I have to sanitise between each patient. After 10 hours my skin is almost peeling off. There are patients with nappies that can’t be properly cleaned. The smell is terrible and there is a massive risk of infection.”
Her story is one of many in the streets of Johannesburg where a water outage that started about a week and a half ago has affected the suburbs of Crosby, Mayfair, Coronationville, Sophiatown, Newlands, Auckland Park and Brixton. Two government hospitals fall in that area.
To compound the problem, Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital has been closed after a fire.
Nozuko Mkabayi, CEO of Rahima Moosa Mother & Child Hospital in Newclare, told 702 that water problems were continuing at the hospital in spite of meetings with Joburg Water and Rand Water since the outage started on May 19.
“They have told us the problem is twofold, with Rand Water and problems with loadshedding with Joburg Water. There is some talk that it’s our infrastructure. We do have old infrastructure at the hospital but the problem is not infrastructure. Water has stopped coming into the hospital,” she said. Water tankers have not worked well. “There has been a knock-on effect. After Bara [Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto] we are the hospital that does the most C-sections and deliveries in Gauteng,” Mkabayi said.
Most patients at the hospital are at high risk of complications, and many require Csections. These are done on the fourth floor, which does not get water because the trucks are unable to pump the water to the operating theatres.
She said the hospital was barely coping, but no patients had been turned away. The CEOs of Johannesburg’s hospitals had rallied to ensure that, between them, patients would be treated, Mkabayi said.
“Discovery Clinic, which used to be a hospital, is now a community health centre and we transfer patients there, right through the night — obviously in an ambulance with a nurse. It’s a safe transfer,” she said.
Helen Joseph Hospital is also dealing with the added pressure of patients redirected from Charlotte Maxeke.
One of the patients was a 99-year-old woman with dementia who was an outpatient referral from Charlotte Maxeke. Her carer, who did not want to be named, said these were difficult circumstances. “The old people are suffering,” said the carer.
Outsiders have stepped in and provided mobile toilets because those in the hospital were blocked. Other donors have given water, but this was cold comfort because patient numbers have recently doubled because of referrals from Charlotte Maxeke.
Kwara Kekana of the Gauteng department of health said the water crisis had been reported to authorities and requests for hospitals to be prioritised had been made.
Genevieve Sherman, a councillor for ward 69, said Joburg Water was managing the situation poorly.
“The Hurst Hill substation was supposed to be upgraded two years ago. But it keeps on getting rolled over in the budget to the next year. So we are waiting to see if it will finally happen,” she said, referring to the recent Johannesburg budget announcement that R95m was to be spent on refurbishing the substation.
Poppie van Rensburg, who lives in the four-storey Limpopo flats in Sophiatown, said water outages were regular. This time the disruption had lasted for two weeks with no sign of improvement.
“There is a 76-year-old woman on the fourth floor who has to climb the stairs every day with water. There is a newborn here. A young woman here gave birth 10 days ago, the day the water outage started,” Van Rensburg said.
Councillors say the Hurst Hill reservoir, in the Brixton area, is less than a metre deep.
It is filled by Rand Water, which recently said that water to the reservoir was being throttled. While reasons for this were under investigation, Rand Water was not yet aware why this was happening.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said challenges relating to power supply in the area were being addressed.
He said R95m had been allocated for the upgrade of the Hurst Hill substation, which would provide relief to the water pump station in the area. He said water pumps were not coping because of power cuts. This had led to reservoirs being emptied faster than they could be filled. He did not give any time frames for the project.
Mpho Moerane, member of the mayoral committee for environment, infrastructure and services, said infrastructure refurbishments would cost R330m and take four years.
No patient could be bathed. There was no clean linen for an entire day
Laaika Amod
Student nurse at Helen Joseph Hospital