The national Department of Health estimates the repair of flood-damaged healthcare facilities in KwaZulu-Natal to cost about R200m, according to head of health facilities and infrastructure management Ayanda Dakela, while repair work to the beleaguered Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital in Gauteng had been escalated since the Department took over the project from Public Works.
Dakela told MPs last Friday (22 April) that total damage to KZN’s infrastructure, including houses, roads, businesses and water, electricity and telecommunications, is estimated at more than R12bn. Daily Dispatch reports that the 630 schools that were damaged will need about R400m to be repaired, while the total estimate to repair destroyed and damaged homes is R1.9bn.
The floods claimed about 435 lives, affected 116,708 people and 16,662 households. More than 70 people are still missing.
Dakela said the floods affected six districts, affecting 34 clinics, 23 hospitals, three community health centres and five other facilities including offices and emergency medical service stations.
The cost assessment had been made by the department’s engineers, and Dakela added that the Department of Health – since taking over the repair of the Charlotte Maxeke hospital in Gauteng – had managed to reduce the R1.4bn cost estimated by the department of Public Works and Infrastructure to about R1bn.
Progress in repairing the fire-damaged Johannesburg hospital had been slow, which was why the Department took over the project.
It hoped to hand over the emergency unit at the end of this month, while the repair of blocks one to five would be completed by the end of next year. Originally, the department of Public Works and Infrastructure planned to finish the project in January 2027, a timeline the Department of Health had reduced by 36 months.
See more from Medical Brief archives:
KZN floods: 318 autopsies, 80 healthcare facilities damaged, fears of disease
Charlotte Maxeke Hospital still ‘a death trap’ for staff and patients
DA: 2,000 patients a day unable to be treated at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital