A massive blast in the X-ray department at Polokwane Hospital in Limpopo last week injured three people and abruptly curtailed services, with patients having to be diverted to hospitals nearly 30km away.
The blast happened when an MRI machine that was being decommissioned “accidentally expelled huge volumes of air” in the radiology unit, said provincial Health MEC Dieketseng Mashego.
The decommissioning work was being carried out BY a private company, hired by the Limpopo Department of Health, reports Health-e News.
The tertiary hospital is having to send X-ray patients to Mankweng Hospital, about 28km away, or to Seshego Hospital, about 12km away, while existing patients are being helped with mobile X-ray machines.
Collapsed ceilings
Two radiographers attached to the hospital and a technician from a private company were injured.
“The technician suffered rib fractures when the ceiling caved in … He was pulled out from the rubble and treated here at the hospital but later airlifted to a private clinic in Johannesburg,” a hospital source said.
One of the radiographers transferred to a private clinic in Polokwane and the other was discharged.
Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) provincial chairperson Lesiba Monyaki said that fortunately, patients, most workers and visitors had already been evacuated from the unit as routine precautionary measures before repairs and decommissioning were started.
“We hope that no one … is in danger of possible exposure to radiation.”
Officials from the Labour Department, senior X-rays technicians as well as representatives from the company that was doing the work were all on the scene afterwards.
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