Fears over Tygerberg Hospital replacement plan
Tygerberg Hospital was the first hospital to be designated for coronavirus testing in the Western Cape. Picture: Tracey Adams/African News Agency (ANA)
Cape Town - There are concerns that the long-delayed Tygerberg Hospital Project could stagnate and eventually be forgotten, according to opposition members of the legislature’s Standing Committee on Health.
The concerns over the current status of the project come after the Budget Committee was told last week one of the main reasons for the under-spending of R107.6 million by the provincial Department of Health was “delays in various maintenance projects, mainly within Property Payments, including the Tygerberg Hospital project”.
In March, before the lockdown, the Standing Committee on Health was told the Department would “soon” embark on replacing the existing Tygerberg Hospital with two hospitals in an “unbundling” exercise.
On Friday, the department said this plan was on the back burner because of the pandemic, but would restart soon.
Spokesperson for Tygerberg Hospital Laticia Pienaar said: “For the replacement of the current tertiary hospital (on the same ground of the current hospitals) we are still working with the transaction adviser for the final approval to the National Treasury and National Department of Health. For the regional hospital, the work on the compilation of the clinical brief has been put on hold due to the Covid pandemic.”
Committee member and ANC spokesperson on Health, Rachel Windvogel, said: “We are concerned that Tygerberg may be another GF Jooste Hospital that will vanish before our eyes.
“The department has failed on maintenance and refurbishment of many hospitals, including at Tygerberg. Many refurbishment projects and the building of new facilities had been delayed even before the Covid-19 pandemic. This will become worse, moving forward. The under-expenditure is due to many delayed maintenance projects. This failure may mean many hospitals will become a health hazard to patients and health workers. It is the same situation which led to the closure of GF Jooste and what we are seeing now at Tygerberg.”
Committee member Melikhaya Xego (EFF) said: “Now it seems like that project has stagnated, and the excuse is that the department cannot move forward on the replacement of the tertiary wing of the Tygerberg hospital because they are still waiting for the final approval by the national Treasury and Department of Health.
“We have now entered the terrain of uncertainty because now no one knows when these national departments will grant such approval. It can take months or even years before such is granted. In the meantime the public will not be receiving adequate services due to the money being underspent based on a project whose start date no one knows,” said Xego.
Cape Argus