Cape Town - The Khayelitsha District Hospital is in the process of requesting an additional R150 million in funds from the provincial health department to help resolve ongoing challenges at the hospital.
This emerged during the standing committee on health meeting yesterday, where Khayelitsha District Hospital chief executive officer David Binza and the health department chief operating officer, Dr Saadiq Kariem, briefed the committee on the hospital’s capacity.
The meeting comes after an ANC-led oversight visit to the hospital last month. During the visit, structural challenges affecting the quality of care at the hospital were identified, including a chronic shortage of staff and beds, which had resulted in patients sleeping on the floor.
Binza said when the hospital was opened in 2012, it was run by three family physicians, one specialist physician in the Emergency Centre, as well as one obstetrician and a paediatrician.
He said since then the community of Khayelitsha had grown exponentially, and the hospital was experiencing surges in the trauma unit caused by the weekends and other seasonal surges.
“The hospital currently accepts referrals from all over Khayelitsha and surrounding areas, such as Mfuleni, and is the same size as other district hospitals, but it has morphed off from being just an ordinary district hospital, offering more services, that should have been offered at the regional hospital level.
“We’re experiencing a lot of service pressures, especially in our emergency trauma wards, especially on weekends, month end and public holidays. The hospital is experiencing a lot of constraints because it’s the only hospital in Khayelitsha and the demand exceeds supply,” he said.
Binza said the hospital had a 340-bed capacity, which he said was often exceeded by 130% and more. He said despite these challenges the hospital’s mortality rate was comparable to other facilities of similar size, ranging between 2% and 4%.
He said some steps had been taken to improve service levels at the hospital. These included strengthening community and primary health-care facility services and relationships with other government departments and stakeholders in the area, and the expansion of bed numbers in 2017.
Binza said 369 more posts were needed at the hospital, including clinical, support staff and allied health services positions.
He said a 30-bed extension unit was planned for its psychiatry ward in 2023.
ANC spokesperson on health Rachel Windvogel called on the premier and the provincial government to find ways to make these funds available.
Committee chairperson Wendy Kaizer-Philander said further information regarding specific posts and beds the hospital required to assist in dealing with the capacity pressures would be requested.