Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital is buckling under the strain of additional referrals from the emergency unit at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital and a pile of unpaid bills, placing the world’s third-largest hospital at risk of breakdown.
Charlotte Maxeke shut its emergency facilities after a fire in April last year. The referrals have stretched the already thin staff numbers at Baragwanath — which treats about 150,000 inpatients and 500,000 outpatients a year — to the limit.
Charlotte Maxeke CEO Gladys Bogoshi said the hospital used to see about 74,000 outpatients every month.
In addition, outstanding bills has led to operational failures, such as the mortuary being used to store human tissue because medical waste suppliers haven’t been paid in weeks.
“With the trauma unit at Charlotte Maxeke closed, Chris Hani Baragwanath is now the biggest trauma centre in Johannesburg — this without an increased budget,” a senior doctor said. “People who work here are reaching breaking point.”
Earlier this month it was revealed that the Gauteng health department owed R226m to 2,477 of the hospital’s suppliers. That followed revelations that doctors were bringing their own food to patients because service providers hadn’t been paid.
Businessman Sharrif Khan began feeding patients at Baragwanath through an initiative he launched, Random Act of Kindness. “I was notified by doctors that they were having to bring in extra food to feed their patients after the health department failed to pay their food providers,” he said.
A senior doctor told the Sunday Times that the hospital was storing human tissue in the mortuary to prevent it rotting and posing a health hazard, before medical waste company Buhle was hastily paid 10 days ago after halting its services in mid-February.
Buhle didn’t respond to requests for comment about the unpaid bills. The Gauteng health department responded by sending previous press releases and videos of previous press briefings.
The doctor blamed corruption and a lack of accountability for the hospital’s financial woes.
“Mounds of litigation are draining the budget,” she said. “They’ve never paid attention to improving the business systems and patients are compromised. The maternity ward is full and there are women having to deliver in their chairs [in the queues]. We don’t have enough operating rooms for Caesareans and babies are being compromised.”
Still, the hospital has world-class burns and trauma units, and a state-of-the-art research centre, she said. “This is an old institution built during World War 2 and it’s weathered Covid waves 1-4 and is still standing.”
The strain on facilities was clear when the Sunday Times visited the hospital last week.
A tiny area demarcated for parking includes four portable toilets. Nearby, cars were parked in front a “no parking” sign, including a police van with three burly officers squashed in front dropping off prisoners for treatment.
In front of the main hospital a woman sat on the grass breastfeeding her newborn while a man in pyjamas took business calls. Relatives of patients were crammed into the foyer with their loved ones, waiting for treatment.
The grounds mirror the chaos in the corridors, with scores of separate buildings in various states of repair. Some are new, while others appear not to have been painted since the hospital was established in 1942.
Security is also a shambles.
A doctor driving on the hospital premises had to swerve to avoid a pothole on Hospital Road, almost hitting a pedestrian. The man, who declined to give his name, claimed to be visiting a friend but soon asked for money and revealed that he has been living on the grounds.
Behind him a man was relieving himself against a derelict guard house.
Scores of bags filled with grass and other environmental waste hadn’t been collected. Steel rubbish bins were used for medical waste while Buhle stopped their service, but were emptied after a complaint from DA Gauteng health spokesperson Jack Bloom.
Nearby, Karabo Mokoena was becoming restless, having waited for her lift outside the maternity unit for almost two hours. She is one of 60,000 patients treated in the maternity ward each year. Her first baby died when she gave birth three years ago and she is terrified of losing her second.
“I was seated at 8am and only left at 4pm. The appointment took so long I had to come back today for the extra measurements, blood tests and to go to the pharmacy. There are only two rooms with sonars [ultrasound scanners] and only one person doing the scanning,” she said.
“When I had my scan and saw the doctor, an intern came in and they spoke as if I wasn’t in the room. The intern was complaining that she had been stuck at the desk by herself doing the administration. The doctor replied that they needed more interns but didn’t know where their existing staff had gone.”
According to information supplied by the hospital, about 70% of admissions are emergencies and the situation is unlikely to ease until next year at the earliest, when Charlotte Maxeke is scheduled to reopen fully.
Bogoshi said the facility has 650 beds available but the emergency, psychiatry and cardiothoracic wards remain closed, with patients referred to Helen Joseph and Chris Hani Baragwanath.
News that the provincial health department last week backtracked on its original decision and would renew the contracts of more than 800 temporary support staff offers some hope. They were sent to Chris Hani Baragwanath at the peak of the Covid pandemic, and mounted a protest outside the hospital last week when informed that they would be laid off.
Chris Hani Baragwanath spokesperson Nkosiyethu Mazibuko said the department has assured the hospital that it would renew the contracts of 819 staff, 812 of whom have agreed to remain.
He said they will need more staff, especially as more trauma cases are expected with the lifting of pandemic restrictions.
“There are now only two centres in the south of Gauteng for trauma cases,” he said.
Health minister Joe Phaahla this week confirmed the staff contracts had been renewed for a further 12 months.
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