There will be another three-month delay before patients can access life-saving care at the Bay’s state catheterisation laboratory because a tender must be issued for construction work at Provincial Hospital.
However, patients will be helped from next week after an agreement was reached with Netcare Greenacres for publicsector patients to use its cathlab twice a week.
Eastern Cape health department spokesperson Lwandile Sicwetsha said on Wednesday that the delay was necessitated by the infrastructure changes to accommodate the new technology, as well as the training of staff on the latest features of the new equipment.
He said the cathlab would be fully operational by July 28.
“A request for quotations [for construction and electrical work] has been issued and closes next week Tuesday.
“It is our intention to issue the award by the Easter weekend break so that contractors can commence as soon as possible,” he said.
He said the agreement with Netcare Greenacres – to use its cathlab twice a week – would start on Tuesday next week.
The cathlab is used by specialists to do non-invasive surgery to fix minor heart defects, deal with blood clots and take accurate images of the heart for heart surgeons.
It is regarded as essential equipment as babies born with congenital heart defects can receive life-saving assistance.
Hospital sources said there was an arrangement to fast-track an agreement with Netcare Greenacres for the use of its cathlab while the new one was being commissioned.
Sicwetsha had twice insisted, incorrectly, that this agreement had been concluded.
The cathlab equipment was delivered to the hospital at the end of March and is locked up in two shipping containers.
It has been six months since the old cathlab broke.
More than 150 babies and children and hundreds of adult heart patients have been turned away in this time.
Before it broke, it was the only operational cathlab in public sector hospitals in the province.
The department has also been threatened with legal action over its lack of contingency plans regarding the cathlab.