Five years after an announcement that a new psychiatric hospital would be built in Nelson Mandela Bay, the project has been scrapped, with the department of health saying it is not affordable.
Eastern Cape health department spokesperson Lwandile Sicwetsha said that the project had been cancelled, based on it no longer being affordable.
“The estimated construction value of this project in 2015 stood at R720m,” Sicwetsha said on Tuesday.
“The affordability question primarily was prompted by two other provincial projects that were being implemented at the same time. These are the upgrade of the Khotsong TB hospital [in Matatiele] with a construction value of R438m, and the upgrade of the Sipetu Hospital in Mount Frere with the construction value of R502m.
“Had the department continued with the implementation of the Dora Nginza Psychiatric Hospital without additional budget being made available, the department was going to run the risk of not being able to pay the contractor.”
Sicwetsha said consultants were paid for a plan to move patients to Dora Nginza Hospital in 2013 as part of the proposal to start construction of the new hospital.
The tender for the new hospital was later cancelled.
The department would “in due course” conduct maintenance work at the Port Elizabeth psychiatric institution, the Elizabeth Donkin Hospital.
He said repeated promises over the past five years that the hospital “was coming” were not lies.
These promises were made by former premier Noxolo Kiviet in 2013, in 2015 by the then MEC for health, Sicelo Gqobana, and later in 2015 by head of infrastructure at the department, Mlamli Tuswa.
“At the time . . . it was envisaged that the department would have enough funds to implement all of its planned projects,” Sicwetsha said.
He said a promise made by Tuswa that Dora Nginza Hospital would see a significant increase in beds, made in 2015, was also not a lie.
“The construction of the new psychiatric hospital would have resulted in an additional 242 beds for psychiatric-related services.”
He said unless money was made available from the national department of health for provincial infrastructure, the project would not go ahead.There was also no work going ahead at the Dora Nginza Casualty Unit. In 2015, the value of the project was estimated to be R41m.
“The department is working on plans of upgrading the casualty and maternity units.”
DA spokesperson for health Jane Cowley said the health department must have budgeted for these facilities.
“Either the money is being redirected to address the medico-legal claim crisis within the department, or being returned to the Treasury because it hasn’t been used,” she said.
“A third likelihood is that infrastructure projects have cost far more than anticipated, thus the number of projects had to be reduced.
“I have requested an audited paper trail for the funding that was allocated to the building of the Dora Nginza Hospital.”
Cowley said that she had also submitted questions to the Eastern Cape Legislature asking what had happened to the money budgeted for the new hospital.