Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital said on Wednesday the hospital has started tackling it’s surgery backlog currently sitting at 11 194 patients.
The MEC said factors such as shortage of a post-operative intensive care unit and high care unit beds; insufficient theatre times; infrastructure issues such as broken autoclaves, power outages, and dysfunctional boilers are the leading causes of long waiting times for operations.
Gauteng Health MEC, Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi said to combat the backlog, the hospital has dedicated weekend surgeries, an increase in arthroplasty days to three days a week for hip replacement and other joint surgeries.
“Further capacity will be availed once an additional theatre at the Bheki Mlangeni District Hospital is back online,” she said.
Mokgethi added that the Department of Infrastructure and Property Management (DID) is
currently attending to ventilation issues affecting the theatre in order to allow for minor surgeries to resume at the facility.
“The neurosurgery department provides an outreach programme at a lower-level hospital within the Bara cluster. These are taking place at Thelle Mogoerane Regional Hospital in Ekurhuleni and Leratong Hospital in West Rand District,” she said.
She said the hospital would also continue to provide brachytherapy as part of efforts to reduce prostate cancer backlogs, introduced last year, and rezum therapy to decrease benign prostatic hyperplasia backlogs.
Mokgethi said Covid-19 also resulted in the postponement of planned surgeries as the health system was recapacitated to deal with the pandemic.
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