PATIENTS SUFFER WITH BROKEN LIFTS AT JOBURG HOSPITAL

Patients and staff are suffering because of six broken lifts at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital.

Despite promises that all 23 lifts at the hospital would be replaced, new lifts have not been put in sections one and two and the old lifts there are virtually always broken.

I have received complaints that small children are exhausted climbing up several flights of stairs to the Paediatric Ward in Section Two.

Elderly patients with poor sight have difficulty reaching the Opthalmology Department as well.

They sometimes have to use the goods lift which is crowded with laundry, food trolleys and other equipment.

It's most unsatisfactory as the public works department is slow to repair lifts that should have been replaced long ago.

According to the Gauteng Health Department's Annual Report, 42 lifts were supposed to be replaced last year but only 34 were put in because of "contractual matters and theft of equipment from the contractor."

This is a poor excuse. The lift replacement programme should be expedited so that hospitals can function efficiently.

Statement by Jack Bloom MPL, DA Gauteng Health Spokesman, November 30 2010

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