Premier pays unannounced visit to Khayelitsha District Hospital

This week Premier Alan Winde made an unannounced visit to the Khayelitsha District Hospital (KDH). Apart from seeing for himself how healthcare services are being delivered to residents as part of his regular community outreach and oversight functions, the Premier also used the opportunity to thank staff at the facility for all their hard work over the past festive season. “We at the Western Cape Government (WCG) cannot express our gratitude enough. From the nurses and doctors to the administrative and cleaning staff, you all ensure this facility is run professionally and efficiently. Despite various challenges, Khayelitsha District Hospital can be proud that you are all providing the best possible service for people accessing healthcare here. No patient will be refused emergency and basic medical care and treatment.” said the Premier.

On a tour of the Paediatric Unit, Nursing Sister Nolubabalo Sixishi told the Premier that they need more staff and ward capacity. The hospital faces pressures that require services to be reprioritised. This is severely compounded by The Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness facing in-year budget cuts to the tune of R121.987 million due to the centrally negotiated public wage deal, which provinces have been forced to fund.

The pressure on the hospital is not only determined by the number of people who depend on it, but also by the healthcare needs of the specific population.

Khayelitsha faces a quadruple burden of disease:

• violence, trauma and injury;
• mother and child health;
• communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV; and
• non-communicable diseases like hypertension and diabetes.

The hospital has its hands full with medical and trauma cases involving blunt assaults, accidental injuries, burn injuries and road traffic injuries. Exacerbating the situation is its inability to quickly fill critical positions due to the significant constraints on the budget, backlogged surgeries, and staff safety concerns resulting in shift cancellations.

In the hospital’s Emergency Centre (EC), Dr Crispin Kibamba told Premier Winde he and his team treat up to 3 500 patients each month, 25% of these are trauma-related admissions. Over the last three weekends in January, nearly 700 patients were presented in the hospital’s EC, making it among the busiest in the Western Cape.

KDH’s Psychiatric Unit, which is meant to accommodate 30 patients, is also feeling the pressure of having to treat around 80 patients at any given time. A doctor remarked, “We have not fallen apart because we always help each other.”

Premier Winde also paid a visit to the Nonceba Family Counselling Centre in Khayelitsha, a recent recipient of load shedding relief packs which are being distributed to Western Cape Department of Social Development-funded facilities to offer vulnerable residents a small form of protection and relief from power cuts. He said, “We will do all we can to help these kinds of facilities given the critical work they do for survivors of gender-based violence (GBV). I am deeply impressed with this centre, which offers GBV survivors a caring environment where they can heal.”