CAT SCAN OUT OF ACTION AT BARA HOSPITAL

A broken CAT Scan is compromising the care of patients at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.

I discovered this yesterday when I visited the hospital's radiology department.

I saw a notice dated 17 December 2010 that read: "As per senior hospital management, we are only able to do urgent and semi-urgent CT Scans due to the current status of our machine with only one scanner partially working. All booked cases will have to be rebooked."

There are two CAT Scanners but they are both old and unreliable. One broke down in December, and after it was repaired the other one broke down.

Staff told me that only urgent patients are being done, and that about 30 patients a day are told to come back in about four months time.

The delays could be life-threatening, especially with fast-growing cancerous tumours.

A brand new radiology ward has been built, but is not operational because new equipment has not yet been bought even though staff were told this would happen before the Soccer World Cup.

It appears that a tender for CAT Scanners was cancelled after irregularities were discovered.

Whatever the reason, the Gauteng Health Departments needs to buy new CAT scanners as soon as possible as patients lives are at risk in the present unsatisfactory situation.

Statement issued by Jack Bloom MPL, DA Gauteng Health Spokesman, January 5 2010

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter