Joburg hospital psychiatric ward delayed yet again after 11 years and 4 contractors

1 December 2019

The badly needed renovation of psychiatric ward at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital is now due to be completed on 31 January next year after missing the latest promised deadline of 31 October.

This was revealed by Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku in an oral reply to my questions in the Legislature last week.

Work on the ward started in February 2008 and was supposed to be finished in 2014, but three companies had to be fired and the fourth company could not provide needed mechanical equipment that had to be imported from France at an extra cost of R4 million.

Two years ago, then Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa disclosed that the cost of the ward had tripled to R34 million and she promised that it would be finished in March 2018.

This highlight yet again the incompetence of the Department of Infrastructure Development which is repeatedly incapable of choosing building companies that can do the job properly.

Meanwhile, psychiatric patients at this major hospital continue to suffer in unsuitable facilities despite lessons that should have been learned from the Life Esidimeni tragedy.

I hope that the new Psychiatric ward, which will increase beds from 20 to 40, is indeed opened in January next year.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, 1 December 2019