THE NORTHERN Cape Department of Health is exploring options to erect additional structures on hospital sites if needed during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Department spokesperson Lebogang Majaha said on Tuesday that the department had undertaken an assessment of all hospital facilities in the Province to determine the number of available beds currently.
“This is in line with Stage 6, which focuses on providing increased medical care during the peak of the pandemic,” said Majaha.
He pointed out that based on the projections of the national Department of Health, the view was that the Northern Cape would require between 2 710 and 3 900 general and high care hospital beds plus 72 intensive care beds.
“We currently have 1 878 general and high care hospital beds in the Province, plus 49 intensive care beds.”
Majaha added that a number of interventions had been implemented with the first phase to strengthen available hospital beds by upgrading existing health facilities and repurposing previously closed bed capacity.
“This was based on recommendations from the national Department of Health that when developing field hospital capacity, the emphasis should be on upgrading existing facilities.”
He indicated that this would add an additional 1 257 general and high care beds plus 55 intensive care beds.
“We are also exploring options to erect additional structures on hospital sites if needed. Depending on the need, this additional capacity may start out as quarantine beds for people under investigation and be escalated into isolation beds for people infected with Covid-19.”
Majaha stated that currently, the provincial department had identified 25 quarantine sites, with a total capacity of 2 737 available beds.
“This was made possible by a collaboration with the mining sector, municipalities and the Department of Roads and Public Works. Our focus is on utilising state-owned facilities in order to maximise resources available for fighting the pandemic.”
Majaha was responding to a report that no field hospitals had been built in the Northern Cape.
According to a recent question posed in Parliament by the DA’s Siviwe Gwarube to the Minister of Health, Dr Zweli Mkhize, it was revealed that no field hospitals had been built in the Northern Cape, Mpumalanga or Limpopo.
