R500 000 spent for each patient at NASREC field hospital

23 September 2020

Only 700 patients have been admitted to the NASREC field hospital, which amounts to a cost of about R500 000 per patient.

According to a presentation made to the Gauteng Legislature’s Oversight Committee on the Premier’s Office and Legislature (OCPOL), the NASREC field hospital was commissioned on 15 June this year and has so far admitted 604 patients for quarantine and isolation, and 96 patients for intermediate care including oxygen.

The total bed capacity is 1500 but there were only 25 patients as at 28 August 2020.

The facility has cost about R350 million in total, which means that R500 000 has been spent on each patient.

This is a colossal waste of money caused by poor judgement and probable corruption as connected people benefited from large contracts.

The quarantine patients could easily have been accommodated at hotels, and private hospitals could have been paid to treat the 96 patients who required intermediate care.

Meanwhile, doctors at one stage had to appeal for oxygen to be donated to assist patients at NASREC.

The runaway costs of the NASREC facility are yet another reason why suspended Health MEC Bandile Masuku should be fired in addition to his failure to prevent the massive corruption in the PPE contracts.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health, 23 September 2020