Apartheid-era funding blamed for hospital upgrade setback

Tygerberg Hospital will not get funding from the national government. Picture: Lulama Zenzile

Tygerberg Hospital will not get funding from the national government. Picture: Lulama Zenzile

Published Nov 8, 2016

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Cape Town - A multibillion-rand plan to redevelop and modernise the province’s largest hospital, Tygerberg Hospital, has been shelved, with the provincial government claiming that it could no longer afford it after it was “dumped” by the national government.

Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo said that although the province had planned to begin the R5 billion project next year as part of the Hospital Revitalisation Programme (HRP), this would no longer happen as it cannot afford such a project on its own.

She said the national Department of Health had informed them that Tygerberg and Groote Schuur hospitals would no longer benefit from the revitalisation programme as these facilities had “unduly benefited” from investments during apartheid.The national programme to modernise and transform hospitals was touted to rebuild the 1 384 bed hospital from next year.

The Department of Health has denied it has cut the Western Cape’s budget.

Spokesman Popo Maja said the Hospital Revitalisation Grant budget showed the province had consistently under-spent over the years. Figures supplied by Maja showed that between 2013/2014 the province had under-spent by almost R1 million.

“The national Department of Health is not aware of what the Western Cape government is referring to. It is a historical fact there were no Bantustans or so-called “Homelands” in the present Western Cape

geographical area. It is also a historical fact that health infrastructure development was skewed towards or in favour of white rather than African, Coloured and Indian areas,” he said.

Two years ago then-Health MEC Theuns Botha announced that the multistorey buildings of Tygerberg could be turned into office space, residential accommodation or student residences as the province prepared to rebuild the hospital. Construction was to start next year and be complete in 2020. Construction alone was expected to cost about R4bn while hospital equipment was estimated at R1bn.

During her visit to the hospital on Monday to oversee the administration of her department’s annual client satisfaction survey, Mbombo said many patients had expressed satisfaction with the service, but had concerns about the hospital’s crumbling infrastructure.

Mbombo said this was also a concern to authorities, “but unfortunately as the province we can’t upgrade the hospital at the rate it would have taken had we received the grant to revitalise central hospitals”.

“Other central hospitals elsewhere in the country will be upgraded except the Western Cape. That decision is very unfortunate as Tygerberg Hospital is a referral central hospital that doesn’t only deal with the Western Cape, but other patients from all over the country (and) Africa.””We now have to explore our own ways of revitalising certain units within the hospital. We are doing these upgrades bit by bit as the funding becomes available, but it’s not fast enough,” Mbombo said.

She didn’t rule out future maintenance disasters such as burst water pipes, saying: “I cannot give any guarantees as the hospital needs serious maintenance.”

The Cape Metro Health Forum and the ANC in the province hit out at Mbombo, with the forum saying she was using the national Department of Health as a scapegoat. Forum chairperson Damaries Kiewiet said: “The DA-led government has prioritised other smaller projects that would entice voters come 2019.”

She said one such project was a new district hospital for the Stellenbosch Arterial region to serve Belhar, Bellville and Delft.

ANC spokeswoman on health Dorothea Gopie said the party was disappointed that Tygerberg was no longer being redeveloped.

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Cape Argus

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