Hospital rescue plan bogged down

EASTERN Cape Health MEC Pumza Dyantyi's plan to turn around Livingstone Hospital's casualty unit is being held up by red tape.

This comes two months after the Health Department promised an ambitious plan by Dyantyi would improve waiting times and conditions at the hospital.

"The administrative process to achieve this is still under way," provincial Health Department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said.

The casualty unit has often been overwhelmed with patients who are ill but not regarded as high priority, and sometimes wait days to get medical care.

A part of Dyantyi's plan was to implement a 24-hour "gateway clinic" at the Korsten Clinic. The clinic is on the same premises as the hospital.

Instead, the regional health office has requested the clinic be opened for 12 hours a day. It is currently open for eight hours.

A second part of the plan was to reopen an empty block of wards for patients admitted for observation, treatment, tests or surgery.

The wards have still not been reopened. - Estelle Ellis