HELEN JOSEPH LIFTS NOT WORKING DUE TO NON-PAYMENT

The Gauteng Health Department has admitted in a report in the Sowetan today that late payments to a supplier has caused broken lifts at the Helen Joseph Hospital in west Johannesburg.

It's deplorable that yet again patients and staff are severely inconvenienced by non-payment to a supplier.

Nine out of 13 lifts were broken at the hospital when I visited there last week.

Staff told me that lift problems had been experienced for more than three weeks. At one stage the kitchen, theatres and laundry shared a single lift, so food and dead bodies would be in the same lift.

This unacceptable situation needs to be rectified as soon as possible.

My view is that lift maintenance should fall directly under hospital management, rather than the grossly incompetent Infrastructure Development Department.

Statement issued by Jack Bloom MPL, DA Gauteng Health Spokesman, October 11 2013

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