The General De La Rey Hospital in Lichtenburg, North West, has been partially reopened, after it was closed last week following heavy rains that flooded the facility, forcing the evacuation of 33 patients to nearby hospitals. The facility was opened by Health MEC Sello Lehari, who was accompanied by other senior health officials Several wards, including Admission Office, Maternity ward, Outpatient Department and Casualty unit, have resumed operation following a mop-up operation.
According to the Department of Health, the other wards at the 71-bed hospital will only re-open once work has been completed on municipal’s storm-water system.The Department is also doing some repairs on some of the affected wards, and its team of engineers has also built nets to direct water away from the hospital to avert future possible floods.
“I am glad that there’s been progress since we closed the hospital last week. Management has done well and have dealt with the problem of overwhelmed drain system, and now we are working hard with the municipality, whom we hope will come on board, to deal with this issue of blocked storm water system. There has not been much done from their side honestly, I will speak to the mayor again. They have to come on board,” said Lehari. In addition, Lehari also visited the Mahikeng Provincial Hospital, which had to admit some of the patients who were evacuated from General De La Rey, to assess how the hospital is coping with the additional number of patients.
“The contingency plan to transfer patients involved a lot of things, from ensuring the receiving hospitals, Gelukspan, Mahikeng Provincial Hospital and Lehurutshe/Zeerust Hospital complex, have enough beds, medical personnel and the likes.So, we had to plan carefully to ensure proper coordination. As it is, I’m satisfied with work done by management as part of my pronouncements last week,” explained the MEC.
Moreover, Lehari conducted an oversight visit at the Moses Kotane District Hospital. He applauded the hospital for managing to drain out water in one of the wards that was affected, stressing that interventions have been made to safeguard the drain system which was overwhelmed because of debris carried by overflowing rainwater. The hospital’s para-meter fencing has also been fixed.
