Walls are black with soot; some floors are propped up to prevent them from collapsing; leaks have flooded some wards, damaging electrical boards and lifts; and a major water pipe needs fixing. Staff and patients speak of frustration at the slow pace of repair at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital in Parktown.
The Gauteng department of health confirmed the leaks and flooding, but Kwara Kekana, a spokesperson for Gauteng health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi, says the infrastructure & development department is now responsible for repairs of the leaks.
The FM was given an unofficial tour to see the damage wrought by a runaway fire that broke out on the night of April 16 last year. The imposing hospital, which was opened in November 1979 and is meant to serve thousands of patients, is now decrepit.
It is a crucial health facility, and one of its critical roles is dealing with complicated trauma patients. Today, the building itself is in a state of stress.
The Solidarity Fund, set up to deal with the pandemic, donated R68m to fix the hospital, but hospital CEO Gladys Bogoshi says the cost will be well more than that.
As little progress has been made since the fire, the government is desperately trying to kick-start the renovation project. It aims to complete it by the end of 2023 instead of 2027, as initially planned.
The fire, which broke out in a storeroom, was put out twice by the fire brigade before it flared up a third time, then got out of control. Firefighters found that the hospital did not meet safety regulations in several areas, including fire hydrants that didn’t work because couplings had been stolen or were incompatible, and that the fire-resistant doors were faulty.
A source says two patients died during the evacuation, but Kekana says the hospital has no record of such deaths.
However, the FM has a copy of a Gauteng provincial government status report, from last April, about patients who were moved from Charlotte Maxeke to Dr Yusuf Dadoo Hospital in Krugersdorp after the fire. The report shows that two patients transferred to Dr Yusuf Dadoo died, one on April 17 and the other on April 19.
In the fire’s aftermath, there have been allegations of corruption and incidents of theft. Copper piping that will cost R30m to replace was stolen, but Kekana says this had been happening even before the fire.
The City of Joburg and the police are investigating the fire, but have not yet provided their reports.
Parking on two levels has been inaccessible and staff have had to park in the street, risking car theft, of which there have been incidents.
Bogoshi says the hospital has had a high rate of staff attrition, and the fire added to this. "We have lost a lot of specialised staff," she says.
The hospital lost 25% of its bed capacity of 1,068 beds. Bogoshi says it sees about 74,000 patients every month and has 25 services covering highly specialised areas, including mental health wards. Its loss of capacity has placed strain on other Gauteng state hospitals.
According to a source, it took the hospital two months to install propping to prevent floors from collapsing. The propping costs the hospital millions every month, says Vuyo Mhaga, spokesperson for Gauteng premier David Makhura.
Wits University adjunct professor Adam Mahomed, the hospital’s head of internal medicine, tells the FM the government’s lack of response to the damage demonstrates apathy, disdain and disrespect for patients and health workers. Mahomed wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa in December about the state of the hospital, but has not received a response from Ramaphosa, Makhura or the Gauteng department of health.
A source says the government has allocated no extra money to the hospital to deal with the damage.
Instead, state money spent on fixing the facility has come from its existing capital expenditure budget.
Mhaga denies this, saying that after the fire the hospital has spent money on several elements, including refurbishing the radiation oncology building and installing fire-detection equipment.
At a media conference last month, Gauteng provincial government acting director-general Thabo Masebe, who works in Makhura’s office, said one of the reasons for the delays in fixing the hospital was the lack of agreement between the national department of health and the Gauteng department of infrastructure development.
"The national department of health disagreed on the scope of work and the budget proposed by the department of infrastructure development. So I had to step in and mediate, which took too long to resolve the issues. That is why, in December, we decided together with the premier that we [would] look at other options within the law to deal with this. As a result, the premier transferred the hospital from the department of infrastructure development to the national department of health," he said.
"On February 9, the government gazetted the proclamation. In it, the premier says this transfer is limited to the remedial work in strict compliance with the Public Finance Management Act."
To get things on track, the government appointed Ayanda Dakela, head of infrastructure at the health department, to lead the project to fix the fire damage. The government also appointed the Development Bank of Southern Africa to assist him.
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