By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
A fire broke out at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Tshwane in the early hours of Monday morning.
Department of Health Gauteng spokesperson Kwara Kekana said the fire broke out at around 01:20 in a Wendy house that’s used as a temporary storage area for Covid-19 medical waste and as an in-transit corpse area.
Kekana added: It also affected a special temporary isolation unit and a tent used for triage (for persons under investigation). The affected structures were located outside the casualty area of the hospital.
She said the hospital team used fire extinguishers that were on site to put out the blaze.
There were no casualties.
Eighteen patients and one corpse in separate temporary structures close to where the fire broke out, had to be moved to other areas of the hospital as a safety precaution.
“The cause of the fire is unknown at this stage, she added.
Meanwhile, in her department budget vote last week, Gauteng Health MEC, Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi, said that “significant progress” is being made in the remedial work to repair the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH) which itself was engulfed by fire in April last year.
According to Mokgethi, this progress includes:
- Reopening of all areas of the Accident and Emergency Department;
- The reopening of the Psychiatry Acute Care Centre;
- The Paediatric Emergencies unit has also reopened;
- Obstetric and Gynae emergency service units are now open; and
- The CT scan has been fixed and recommissioned which enabled the hospital to bring the remaining Triage, COVID-19 emergency, trauma unit and medical and surgical emergency units back online.
“The multi-phase, multi-year remedial work project is being fast tracked to ensure that the facility is fully functional as quickly as possible. We remain grateful to the healthcare professional at CMJAH and at surrounding facilities for continuing to work hard to meet the needs of those who need care even as work continues at [CMJAH].
“We are equally grateful to the multiple organisations that continue to show interest in getting the facility fully functional including donors who have been…making contributions to that effect,” Mokgethi said.
In a separate incident, Western Cape authorities are probing the cause of a blaze at Vredendal Hospital.
The provincial health department said that staff and patients had been temporarily evacuated when a fire broke out at the facility during the early hours of Sunday morning.
Patients who have been admitted in two wards, as well as those in the emergency centre, returned to the wards after it was declared safe for occupation by the fire and rescue services.
Health MEC spokesperson, Nomawethu Sobukwana, said that patients admitted in the hospital’s Ward B had been moved to a newly renovated ward that was not affected by the fire.
“No injuries have been reported and the cause of the fire is still being investigated. The transfer of patients to other facilities has not been necessary at this point. Should patients need transfers to other facilities due to the fire and loss of berths, the families of these patients will be contacted by the hospital management.”
Sobukwana said that residents of the Mtzikama sub-district in need of emergency medical care could still go to the hospital for assistance.