Patients at the Steve Biko Hospital are deeply distressed as surgery has been delayed for more than a month due to continuing problems with air-conditioning in the operating theatres.
I have been contacted by many anxious relatives of patients who suffer severe pain and discomfort while waiting for their operations.
The most worrying cases are elderly patients who may not survive a long wait. This includes an 80-year-old woman with a hip fracture who has been at the hospital for more than three weeks.
Temperatures in theatres should not rise above 18 degrees Celsius as infection risk increases above this level.
I have raised this matter repeatedly with the Gauteng Health Department, but only partial functioning has been restored, and some patients have been sent to other hospitals for surgery.
It is outrageous that this major hospital has been plagued by persistent air-conditioning failures due to old equipment that should have been properly maintained or replaced.
Corruption and incompetence are the main reasons for the lack of effective preventive maintenance that leads to catastrophic failure in our hospitals.
The DA will keep fighting for the replacement of broken medical equipment and a full-scale overhaul of hospital maintenance. This can be done with honest, competent officials who use the health budget to save lives instead of waste and theft.