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Water shortages at the Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe (RMS) hospital pose a severe risk of infection to patients, also aggravating the growing backlog of the surgery waiting list.

During an oversight inspection to RMS hospital today, I spoke with doctors and nurses and confirmed that a broken pipe at the hospital has severely affected water supply since the start of the week. While the hospital was fully aware of the looming crisis on Monday, it failed to effectively implement adequate contingency plans to ensure consistent provision of water to all sections of the hospital. See attached pic here.

It is believed that the maternity section ran out of water yesterday. Emergency operations have further necessitated doctors and nurses to wash their hands with bottled water. This is posing a significant risk to infection control measures.

Elective surgery has been postponed to lower the risk of infection. One such case is of a patient awaiting a scheduled caesarian section. She indicated that she has developed high blood pressure and is worried about the wellbeing of her unborn baby.

The water crisis will have a detrimental effect on the already overwhelming surgery backlog of 4000 cases.

The RMS hospital’s water infrastructure is old and is marked by a critical lack of planned maintenance over the years. Water challenges are not new to the facility, which was previously plagued by reservoir-related issues and contaminated water.

While funding of R9 million has been allocated towards the upgrading of the water reticulation reservoir system for the 2023/24 financial year, the provincial health department will need to ensure greater investment into RMS hospital, which is the Northern Cape’s only tertiary facility. This should not just be via additional funding and the appointment of nurses and doctors, but also through the appointment of highly skilled and capable technical staff, to properly manage the hospital’s infrastructure.

I will be submitting questions to ascertain whether the RMS has a long-term maintenance and upgrade plan and to see how the department intends minimizing the impact of emergency breakdowns and to determine the competency levels of its technical team.

Issued by Dr Isak Fritz, MPL - DA Spokesperson of Health