GF Jooste Hospital to be Re-constructed | Western Cape Government

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GF Jooste Hospital to be Re-constructed

14 June 2012

Media Statement by Theuns Botha, Western Cape Minister of Health

GF Jooste Hospital is not closing down. It will be re-built. The new GF Jooste Hospital is currently in the planning phase. A brief consisting of an operational narrative and schedule of accommodation is currently being finalised to be submitted to the National Department of Health for peer review; thereafter the design phase will proceed.

Present planning is to close GF Jooste Hospital at the end of March 2013 but that will depend on when the Mitchell's Plain Hospital will open. It is planned that reconstruction should start in April 2013 and will take approximately 36 months to complete. The R550 million re-construction of GF Jooste will provide a full range of district hospital services for the people living in the Klipfontein area with specialist outreach and support as will be the case in both the Khayelitsha and Mitchell's Plain district hospitals.

Although GF Jooste Hospital is currently a district hospital, the services provided do not include essential paediatric or obstetric services. Current services at the hospital include acute and chronic health services including management of rape victims, surgery and outpatient services. The hospital has a very busy emergency unit operating in a sub-optimal facility.

The hospital's current drainage areas include Manenberg, Phillippi, Heideveld, Gugulethu, Nyanga, parts of Cross Roads and Mandalay and Mitchell's Plain.

It is expected that in the interim period patients currently seen at the hospital will be managed at the new Mitchell's Plain District Hospital and Groote Schuur Hospital, which are within 15 km of the current GF Jooste Hospital site. The temporary closure of GF Jooste Hospital will not reduce the bed numbers in the Eastern Metro. To provide for the expected increase in patient load at Groote Schuur Hospital and Mitchell's Plain Hospital, GF Jooste Hospital staff will work at these hospitals during the interim period.

Management and senior clinicians at the hospital have been consulted on and informed about the matter and are actively involved in the plans to maintain the clinical service at different sites during the re-construction period.

Since the opening of Khayelitsha hospital, GF Jooste Hospital serves adult clients who live in Mitchell's Plain and part of the Klipfontein sub-district. The total number of patients seen by the hospital in a month was approximately 3 500. However, since the opening of Khayelitsha Hospital, attendance has dropped to 2 200 per month. Once the new GF Jooste Hospital opens and the Mitchell's Plain Hospital is fully functional it will serve only the Klipfontein community.

The hospital staff have been informed that the hospital is to be upgraded and that during that period services will be relocated to allow for a significantly shorter construction period at a significantly lower cost. Currently GF Jooste Hospital has a staff complement of 531 staff members of whom there are 75 Medical Officers and specialists.

The chairperson of the GF Jooste Hospital facility board, Ms Mercia Isaacs, says: "The facility board of GF Jooste Hospital welcomes the announcement of a new hospital to be built on the current site. We are mindful of the fact that the communities served by GF Jooste Hospital deserve a bigger and better hospital with extra facilities such as maternity services, more operating theatres, better and more modern equipment and a greater number of beds."

"All of these things will enable GF Jooste Hospital to deliver enhanced services to the communities it serves. The facility board of GF Jooste Hospital has been careful to ensure the engagement of all stakeholders in the process leading up to the development of the plans to the new hospital."

"This is a process to which the facility board is deeply committed."

Media Enquiries: 

Hélène Rossouw
Spokesperson for Minister Botha
Tel: 021 483 4426
Cell: 082 771 8834
E-mail: helene.rossouw@pgwc.gov.za