Cape Town – The Brackengate Covid-19 hospital will function with limited staff at the end of March, as it will be converted to a 128-bed general transition care facility.
The Western Cape Health Department announced that this was due to staff funding coming to an end.
Last week, the facility’s nurses, physiotherapists, social workers, admin staff, cleaning staff, doctors and other specialists marched to the Western Cape Legislature, calling on the provincial health and wellness department to extend their contracts.
The 336-bed facility was opened in July 2020 and staff were informed at the end of last month that their contracts would be terminated.
Provincial Health spokesperson, Mark van der Heever, said the hospital was originally established and funded as a Covid-19 facility, to cater for the overflow of patients during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“While no longer specifically catering to the needs of the pandemic, this facility will now be repurposed to serve as a 128-bed general transitional care facility.
“A transitional care facility provides inpatient transitional care services, facilitated by a multidisciplinary team for medically complex patients transitioning from the hospital to home, or from one care setting and to another for a limited duration.
“The health department is sourcing its budget internally to maintain its operations.
“However, as it now has fewer beds than the 338 Covid-19 field hospital, it thus also requires fewer staff,” he said.
He said that the facility and its staff played an important role in supporting the Western Cape Government’s emergency response to the pandemic.
“The Department has been engaging with staff that were contracted to support the emergency Covid-19 response since October 2022 on the ending of the funding and their contracts which were linked to this period of funding and emergency need.
“The Department is currently consulting with staff and organized labour on the service and staffing plan. Once completed, we will complete the recruitment and selection processes needed for the new facility,” he said.
National Public Service Workers Union (NPSWU) provincial chairperson Zolisa Menze said 214 employees stand to be affected.
“What happened is that there was a changed management programme and what they did was actually seek to replace them with people from outside,” said Menze.
Cape Times