The Democratic Alliance (DA) has submitted an urgent request to the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature’s health portfolio committee to summons the health department to an urgent meeting on facility maintenance contracts amidst repeat breakdowns of the air conditioning units at Dr Harry Surtie Hospital in Upington.
A visit by DA councillor, Erica Strauss, to the hospital on Friday last week, confirmed that large parts of the facility are affected. This includes the neonatal unit, where babies are subjected to dangerously warm temperatures. The surgical unit is also standing still due to the heat posing a risk to infection control measures in theatres. Temperatures within the medicine rooms and pharmacy are also not maintained within the safety range, resulting in medicines losses.
The air conditioner in the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer’s office, however, remains in good working order.
At the end of 2023, the air conditioning units also failed. At another DA oversight inspection, the hospital indicated that they were busy with maintenance work. The aircons were operationalized for a short period before they broke down again. There were numerous other reported breakdowns before that.
The DA is particularly concerned about the health and safety of patients and staff. It is unacceptable that maintenance issues at the hospital remain unresolved.
In the 2022/2023 financial year, the Department of Roads and Public Works received material findings in respect of the contract documents for the repairs and maintenance of the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems at Dr Harry Surtie hospital. In respect of the Health Department, the Auditor-General also noted that while a large portion of the Health Facilities Revitalization Grant is spent on repairs and maintenance of facilities, physical site visits revealed that the state and conditions of the facilities are not improved.
The health department has for years lamented the delay in fixing and replacing broken equipment at Dr Harry Surtie. In the latest quarterly report discussed with the committee last year, they also cited uncertainty in respect of infrastructure and maintenance contracts for the 2023/2024 financial period.
This concession was made shortly after it was reported in the media that the department had reached a settlement agreement of R25 million between the provincial Health Department, the Public Works Department and V3 Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd, dated March 3, 2021, for the maintenance of the Dr Harry Surtie and De Aar hospitals contracts, as well as the maintenance for the firefighting contract.
We need to get to the bottom of the infrastructure maintenance contract at Dr Harry Surtie hospital and at other facilities. The DA will not tolerate a situation whereby millions of rands are spent on contracts and subsequent settlements yet the department underspends on the Health Facilities grant funds by R82,211 million, and critical infrastructure is allowed to decay while patients’ health and safety is jeopardized.