Cape Town - Amid service pressures, over-occupancy of beds and staffing and resource challenges, there are growing calls to transform Khayelitsha District Hospital (KDH) into a regional hospital.
District hospitals provide level 1 or generalist services to in-patients and out-patients, ideally on referral from a Community Health Centre or clinic, with regional hospitals rendering services at a general specialist level 2, from specialist expertise.
ANC Western Cape Health spokesperson Rachel Windvogel said with a bed capacity of 340, demand at KDH often exceeded supply.
“The emergency centre and the area housing mental health patients are routinely operating at above 100% capacity. The hospital would surely benefit from being designated a regional hospital, first through an increase in bed capacity, the level of service and care package and specialisation as well as the basket of services offered.”
Regional hospitals also receive patients referred from district hospitals.
“Given the provincial government’s abrupt decision to decommission the GF Jooste Hospital and its failure to timeously rebuild it; it therefore becomes necessary to designate the KDH a regional hospital now.
“The hospital is already rendering some level 2 services as an unfunded mandate and it is therefore correct to officially improve its level of service care package as well as budget,” Windvogel said.
Khayelitsha Development Forum (KDF) chairperson Ndithini Tyhido said the forum would support the call for KDH to be turned into a regional hospital.
“That would allow for the community of Khayelitsha to benefit more from such expansion.”
SA Communist Party (SACP) provincial secretary Benson Ngqentsu said they had been lobbying for this since 2013.
“The state of the hospital is degenerating, as you might be aware, with patients who sleep on the floor,” he said. For this financial year, KDH has been allocated an operational budget of R478 144 000.
Provincial Health and Wellness Department spokesperson Mark van der Heever said the recognition of Helderberg, Klipfontein and Tygerberg regional hospitals as proposed mega projects in the coming years speaks to the growing health burden and need for more specialist services.