Masakh'iSizwe graduate designs field hospital gas systems

As the country went into hard lockdown in March 2020, what we now refer to as Alert Level 5, the Chief Directorate: Health Infrastructure was contemplating the best ways in which the Western Cape Government could respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With projections showing a drastic increase in cases could be expected during the winter period, there was concern about the capacity of Western Cape health infrastructure to cope.

There was an urgent need to establish field hospitals as intermediate care facilities to mitigate the risk that the number of cases would overwhelm existing hospital capacity. Being able to send less serious cases to field hospitals would enable existing hospitals to reserve their bed capacity for cases that need acute care.

Charl Lee, a Department of Health (DoH) production engineer who was at the Department of Transport and Public Works (DTPW) for 10 years prior to moving to DoH last year, was tasked with leading a team to design and install medical gas reticulation a  two field hospitals – the Hospital of Hope (862 beds), and the Brackengate field hospital (330 beds). The Hospital of Hope – the largest field hospital in the country – was built inside the Cape Town International Convention Centre in a record 26 days. Brackengate was converted from a warehouse into an intermediate care facility.

The Hospital of Hope treated more than 1 500 patients before it was closed in mid-September 2020. Brackengate took its first case in July.

Lee’s team essentially had two days to design the systems and plan their implementation, which meant his team had to work until late at night. In addition to time pressure, it was difficult to procure essential supplies. There are very

few suppliers of specialised medical infrastructure equipment such as medical gas tubing at the best of times, but the pandemic had also led to a ban on international air travel and pressures on international supply chain systems.

In spite of all these pressures, the dedicated team was able to find innovative solutions and ensure the installation of essential medical gas equipment was completed in time.

Charl has been associated with DTPW since before he became an employee. He did his mechanical engineering degree at Stellenbosch University with the support of the Masakh’iSizwe Bursary Programme, and was able to register as a professional engineer with the support of the Professional Development Programme.