A new building project for Kopanong Hospital in Vereeniging, aimed at doubling the capacity of patients, has suffered a major setback. Contractors paid to do the job have abandoned the project.
The hospital would have seen additional 300 ICU beds coming on stream to deal with the increasing patient capacity.
The project, which started in 2020, would have seen the construction of six brand-new ICU wards capable of accommodating 156 patients and four high-care wards that would have housed 144 patients.
It is now left in a state of decay, with long grass growing inside and outside the unfinished buildings. Security is also nowhere to be found.
The CEO of Kopanong Hospital, Dr Mmaselloane Kgomojoo, had expressed excitement when former MEC of health in Gauteng Dr Bandile Masuku visited in 2020. Her excitement was short-lived.
DA’s spokesperson of health in Gauteng, Jack Bloom, said the building was a sore eyesight.
“No security guards are to be seen at the decrepit Kopanong Hospital in Vereeniging as they have not been paid, and grass is growing around the incomplete new wards that were meant to be for Covid-19 patients,” said Bloom.
“This is what DA Emfuleni councillor Daddy Mollo found when he visited the hospital this week after he received complaints about the poor state of the hospital building. The medical staff are concerned by the lack of security and the decay of the old hospital. Ceilings are broken and the floors also need urgent repair.”
Bloom also alleged that about R200-million was spent on new wards using alternative building technology that was supposed to be completed 18 months ago when the Covid-19 pandemic was at its worst.
“These wards were supposed to have 300 ICU beds, but the contractor failed to finish the job. It’s a sad tale of incompetence by the Gauteng infrastructure development department, which has failed to fix the old hospital building and wasted a huge amount of money with the unfinished new wards.”
He added: “The Gauteng health department has not yet decided on what to do with the new wards if a new contractor can be found to finish them.”
Bloom said he will raise these issues provincial legislature, noting that the hospital needed to be upgraded to provide decent care to sick people in the Vaal area.
Kgomojoo failed to respond to questions sent to her.
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