The state of Gauteng public hospitals has been “deplorable” for years, with previous cases of hospital fires clearly showing that there is no accountability for non-compliance with occupational health and safety standards, said the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu).
Their statement comes after about 400 patients at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital urgently had to be evacuated to other facilities, due to a blaze at the health facility at the weekend.
The fire started on Friday night and continued into Saturday, after a medical supplies room caught alight on Friday morning.
The hospital fire has since been extinguished but the hospital has been forced to shut its doors for seven days.
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This was the fourth hospital fire in Gauteng in six years, with the last taking place in February this year at Carletonville Hospital, said Gauteng DA shadow MEC of health Jack Bloom.
Bheki Mlangeni Hospital in Soweto experienced a fire in May 2019, Tambo Memorial Hospital in May 2015 as well as the fatal blaze at the Gauteng health department’s head office at the Bank of Lisbon building in 2018.
This was due to widespread lack of compliance with the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), which was revealed by past inspections of the province’s public hospitals, he said.
“Former Gauteng health MEC Bandile Masuku indicated in 2019 that no state health facility in Gauteng had been assessed as complying with the OHSA. He said that ‘all facilities audited received either a non-compliance finding, such as a contravention and or/improvement compliance notice and fire contravention’.
“The critical areas included general machinery regulations, electrical installation regulations, fire-fighting equipment, life regulations, storage, exits, stairs and aisles.”
Nehawu has called for the fire safety measures at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital to be investigated.
WATCH: Charlotte Maxeke hospital fire rages into the night
Despite lacking safety precautions and insufficient fire extinguishers, however, the medical supplies which ignited the fire were extremely flammable and would have required skilled firefighting and emergency services, even if everything worked perfectly, said Johannesburg emergency services spokesperson Synock Matobako.
“It was practically impossible for a fire extinguisher to extinguish that fire. It was highly flammable material which required emergency services. The storage where the ignition started is totally damaged. The upper level of the building caved in and collapsed inside the store room and we had to withdraw our firefighters,” he said.
Some parts of the Charlotte Maxeke hospital is on fire. Patients had to be evacuated. SAPS also had to be called as thiefs were beginning to take advantage of the situation.
Two cars have already been stolen. Emergency personnel onsite trying to extinguish the blaze. pic.twitter.com/ASXyusHbD0
— GPInfrastructure (@GPDID) April 16, 2021
But the root of the deplorable state of the province’s hospitals was lack of funding of infrastructure development and compliance inspections, said Nehawu spokesperson Khaya Xaba.
“These hospitals do not adhere to occupational health and safety. The Department of [Employment and] Labour does not force these hospitals to adhere or enforce compliance and are also to blame. They should be sending inspectors to hospitals to check compliance. The state of the hospitals is deplorable and has been for years,” he said.
Xaba said it was clear no one would be held accountable just like with the Bank of Lisbon fire which killed three firefighters.
“People did not face punitive measures for what happened there.”
But it would cost about R6 billion to ensure health compliance across the province’s 32 public hospitals, said Bloom.
“This included R394 million to fix [Charlotte Maxeke hospital], but little of this has been budgeted. Years of poor spending on maintenance has led to the parlous state of our hospitals which risks the lives of patients and staff.”
He estimated the fire damages to Charlotte Maxeke hospital to value R1 billion.