Only 1 out of 28 lifts working at Steve Biko Hospital

12 September 2017

Patients and staff are greatly inconvenienced at the Steve Biko Hospital in Pretoria because all but one of the 28 lifts are broken.

The one working lift has to carry patients, staff, visitors, food, waste and even dead bodies.

Last week on Friday, Mrs Shelagh Cunningham (60) had to pull her wheelchair-bound husband up the stairs for one floor to be admitted for a cataract operation.

It seems that the motors on the lifts are being replaced and it will take about two weeks before they are working, but this should surely have been done on a staggered basis.

Maintenance needs to be drastically improved at this major hospital which treats many thousands of patients and should always have functional lifts.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, 12 September 2017