TUBERCULOSIS patients in the Orsmond TB Hospital in Kariega are fearing for their lives not because of the debilitating disease they are fighting against, but because of the appalling state of the facilities they are in.
Jane Cowley, DA Shadow MEC for Health and MPL recently conducted an oversight inspection, accompanied by her colleague, Winterhoek Constituency Leader, Marshall von Buchenroder, MPL, of the facilities and found several sections are in such bad repair that they should be condemned, but owing to space shortages they are still in use.
“The X-ray unit, which houses extremely expensive X-ray machinery, has huge cracks across the walls and over the doors, while cracks in the Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) Unit are so big that they have been plugged with wire. The structural decay is so extensive that staff and patients are in danger of having walls and roofs collapsing on them,” said Cowley.
“Ward G, which is the newly renovated COVID-19 and Patients Under Investigation (PUI) ward, is so badly finished that the project should not have been signed off. The bathrooms do not cater for disabled patients and finishes such as skirting boards and tiling are very poorly executed.”
The kitchen and pantry have leaking roofs and buckets must be placed strategically in the storage room to prevent food from being damaged if it rains.
According to Cowley, the conditions under which the healthcare workers and other staff work at this hospital are untenable. Not only do they deal with highly contagious and deadly diseases daily, but they also face the constant threat of the buildings collapsing on them.
She said she will write to the MEC for Health, Nomakosazana Meth, to establish who signed off on the contract to upgrade the G ward, as well as to establish whether plans are in place to demolish the existing building and rebuild it, or to move the staff and patients to alternative, structurally safe premises.
“Years of poor planning, weak leadership and chaotic cadre deployment have left the Eastern Cape Department of Health severely compromised and in dire financial straits. However, it is totally unacceptable to expect employees and patients to bear the brunt of the failed state and put up with such dangerous working conditions,” said Cowley.
