HELEN JOSEPH HOSPITAL NOT READY FOR WORLD CUP

Disruptive renovations at the Helen Joseph Hospital casualty unit are putting at risk its use as a designated facility for the Soccer World Cup.

I visited the hospital earlier this week where I observed that the normal entrance has been closed, and medical casualty patients are seen on an upper level instead. There is a sign that reads "Sorry for inconvenience contractors working".

If patients need urgent resuscitation their lives are in danger as there is only one lift operating to take them down to the resuscitation room.

Virtually all beds at the hospital are occupied, so if there is any sort of disaster it won't be able to cope at all.

The renovations are going slowly, and will probably only be completed in the latter part of June, which is some time after the start of the games. It is very poor planning as it should either have been completed early, or deferred until after the World Cup.

The danger is that this hospital is designated for the fan parks at Mary Fitzgerald Square in the inner city and at Innisfree Park in Sandton which will be in operation for all the games, not only those played in Johannesburg.

There are sure to be injuries from drunk and rowdy incidents at these fan parks, but Helen Joseph will be hard-pressed to treat these, let alone anything worse that may happen.

It would help if the Edenvale hospital was also made a designated facility to deal with cases from the Innisfree Fan Park..

Statement by Jack Bloom MPL, Democratic Alliance Gauteng Health Spokesman, June 2 2010

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