Bara’s better but there’s work left – premier

Upgrades at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital was well under way but more still needed to be done to ensure that patients received quality healthcare, Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane said today.

Mokonyane visited Africa’s largest hospital to assess progress made on some of the health commitments she had made during the state of the province address last year.

She promised that various parts of Bara would be “revitalised” through a public-private partnership. Among the units that were supposed to get a facelifts were the intensive care unit and medical wards.

During the tour, Mokonyane was shown the newly refurbished ICU for children and adults, which she described as having had an extreme make-over compared to the last time she saw it.

“The adult ICU used to look like a deserted ward with potholes yet patients were being treated in it. Five months later it looks completely new,” she said.

Mokonyane acknowledged that the refurbishments were going well but said more still needed to be done to ensure that people received quality healthcare.

Other areas that have been improved are the general medical wards. The hospital also installed 12 new generators worth R24 million in a bid to ensure that that theatres do not grind to a halt when there is a power failure.

Last year Bara was hit by several power outages and at some point surgeons had to continue with an operation using a cellphone light because the generator had failed to kick in. Management said the generators had not been serviced for some time.

As a result, Mokonyane announced today that the hospital has employed engineers who will maintain the generator on site.

“The engineers will be on site 24 hours a day and we should no longer experience what we experienced last year,” she said.