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Gauteng healthcare facilities are on the brink of a total collapse because of poor planning and project management which has subjected our residents to poor healthcare services and longer waiting times. 

The following healthcare facilities were visited as part of an oversight inspection:

• Chris Hani Baragwanath
• Charlotte Maxeke
•  Kopanong
• Johan Heyns

The Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development managers at these facilities were nowhere to be seen. 

Currently, the 238 healthcare facilities which include hospitals, clinics, mortuaries, and nursing homes have a combined maintenance budget of R829 million. 

That is not enough, and it is therefore of the utmost importance that the money allocated for maintenance is spent wisely. 

The system is broken and CEOs at hospitals and the facilities managers have very limited responsibilities to change light bulbs and replace faucets at most. 

When there is a broken pipe, broken boilers, or dysfunctional lifts the process to fix these is so cumbersome that it can take weeks and even months to fix items. 

To resolve this issue, proactive maintenance projects must be properly planned with clear timeframes set and agreed to before the commencement of the new financial year. This will avoid the need for a request for a roll-over to be able to continue and finalise a project.

Furthermore, contract management within the department also needs to be strengthened with clear standards being set to allow for serious consequence management where contractors are called back for repeat faults because of poor workmanship. 

In addition, the Democratic Alliance (DA) is proposing that the Gauteng Department of Health and Infrastructure Development embark on a process of putting together a conditional index of all healthcare facilities and the infrastructure work needed. 

The DA will continue to put pressure on the government for some of the maintenance budgets to be decentralised to the hospitals so that they deal with some of the maintenance work that impacts the ability of facilities to deliver uninterrupted services in hospitals and clinics.

Issued by Nico De Jager MPL - DA Gauteng Spokesperson for Infrastructure Development