The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Limpopo is deeply concerned by the impact of the recent inclement weather on hospital infrastructure and the province’s Covid-19 response.
The heavy rains and harsh weather conditions have caused significant damage and flooding to hospitals in the province like WF Knobel and Botlokwa Hospitals. The weather exposed the failure of the Limpopo Department of Health to maintain infrastructure over the years due to their poor financial position.
The DA called for the prioritisation of WF Knobel Hospital for infrastructure maintenance in August 2020, this was to no avail. This came after a Limpopo Legislature Health portfolio committee oversight visit had revealed the poor condition of the roofing, walls and other infrastructure in the facility.
The severe nature of flooding at Botlokwa Hospital (see videos and photo here, here, and here) also suggests that the facility is built in a low lying area and has insufficient drainage to deal with heavy rainfall.
Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba and the Limpopo Department of Health have assessed damage and moved patients to other nearby facilities, but this raises other concerns around the impact on Limpopo’s already strained capacity in the midst of high numbers of daily Covid-19 infections.
The province has limited bed space and very limited resources. It is unclear what the true extent of the damage is, how long the Province’s health Department will take to repair the damage, whether they are in a financial position to do so and how the storm damage to hospitals in the province has affected the province’s response to Covid-19 and other services.
Although we are in the midst of a surge of Covid-19 infections, MEC Ramathuba and the Limpopo Department of Health must prioritise the maintenance of aging and dilapidated infrastructure in our healthcare facilities. This will prevent such extensive storm damage to healthcare infrastructure in the future.
The DA will continue to hold the Limpopo Health Department accountable for the neglect of our public health facilities infrastructure and the disregard for the impact on the patients in Limpopo that use them.