Only 238 oxygen-needing patients at NASREC field hospital

16 March 2021

Only 238 patients at the NASREC field hospital required oxygen treatment, but R216 million was spent on this 1000-bed facility from 1 April 2019 to its closure at the end of February this year.

This was revealed today by Health MEC NomathembaMokgethi in an oral reply to my questions at a virtual sitting today of the Gauteng Legislature.

This is a huge amount of money spent on a small number of patients who needed oxygen treatment for Covid-19, rather than the larger number of patients in quarantine or isolation at NASREC who could have been put up at much less cost at a hotel.

Field hospitals should ideally only be in use for less serious patients at the peaks of epidemics when other hospitals cannot cope with the volume of patients.

For a long time period the 1000 beds at NASREC were mostly empty of patients who required actual treatment rather than quarantine or isolation.

The Auditor-General has found that their irregularities in the choice of the NASREC facility to use as a field hospital. According to the Auditor-General “the department did not invite as many suppliers as possible and there was no prior approval from the relevant treasury for the emergency procurement of the NASREC Field Hospital as required by treasury regulation.”

Mokgethi said that an investigation would be conducted to determine the culpability for the irregularities in the choice of NASREC as a field hospital.

This investigation should also probe if there was any corruption in spending so much for empty beds at this field hospital.

The R216 million could have been spent more effectively in enhancing facilities at existing hospitals for COVID-19 patients.

Issued byJack Bloom,DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health, 16 March 2021