Charlotte Maxeke casualty still shut

MISSED: PHAAHLA SAID IT WOULD OPEN IN MID-APRIL

Failure to meet deadlines shows ‘deep incompetence’.

The emergency/casualty unit at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital is still not open – despite Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla and Gauteng MEC for Health Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi promising on 25 March it would be. So, what’s the hold up? Gauteng health department spokesperson Kwara Kekana said there would be an update this week.

However, missed deadlines of reopenings, displeased health workers and lack of resources were all a reflection of the deteriorating state of health care in

South Africa, experts agreed.

Dr Elize Webb, University of Pretoria associate professor for health systems and public health, said there was much room for improvement in terms of health care.

According to Webb, there was a need to improve service delivery, drug management, staff shortages and management skills.

“Many good people need to capitalise on what’s working well,” she said.

Democratic Alliance shadow health MEC Jack Bloom said it was appalling that the health department missed the deadlines in reopening the casualty unit when other hospitals were looking forward to the reopening.

“When will this casualty reopen?” he asked.

Bloom said patients who would normally go to the casualty at Charlotte Maxeke, which was also a specialist hospital, were now diverted to other facitilies, such as Helen Joseph and Edenvale

hospitals, which didn’t even have proper resources and could not cope.

“They are all experiencing [a number of] patients they did not have before and they don’t have resources,” said Bloom.

“Casualty is accidents, emergencies, and as [Charlotte Maxeke] being a specialist hospital that deals with difficult cases, I don’t think other hospitals can cope with the extra numbers of people they get.”

Bloom wondered when the next deadline would be as they have missed all of them since January.

He said the continued failure to meet ever-moving deadlines showed deep incompetence.

“What is the actual problem? The time for excuses is over.

“Private sector expertise should be optimally used to reopen the casualty as soon as possible and fix up the rest of the hospital as well,” Bloom said.

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