Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko has called upon the South African Police Services (SAPS) to find and charge those connected with the theft of a pipe at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital.
The MEC condemned the theft of more than 10m of copper pipe at the Soweto hospital, which affected the flow of oxygen to patients. On Monday, staff reported reduced oxygen supply after detecting disruptions in the main intensive care unit.
Nineteen of those patients, on life support, required access to oxygen through artificial ventilation. They were immediately moved to another ward, where they continued receiving oxygen and the copper pipe was replaced.
Ralehoko said those behind the theft should be charged with attempted murder as they intentionally placed the lives of 24 patients at risk.
“We had to then divert the patients and provide services to them in a different ward. That again points to malicious actions which would actually cause havoc in the health system and actually cause a situation where lives would be lost,” said Motalatale Modiba, the chief director of communications at the Gauteng Department of Health.
Modiba confirmed the matter was reported to SAPS and reiterated the MEC’s earlier calls for charges of attempted murder to be laid. He said they had not ruled out the possibilities of collusion and sabotage.
“Hence we reported the letters to South African Police Services, for them to actually probe this. We’ve made a call that the people, that the perpetrators should actually face additional charges of attempted murder,” he said.
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National keypoint
Modiba said it was important that hospitals were safeguarded from acts of vandalism as they were national keypoints. The Chris Hani Academic Baragwanath Hospital, located south of Johannesburg, is the largest hospital in Africa and third largest hospital in the world.
“You have to know exactly what you are doing and you have to know the access system for you to be able to then manoeuvre your way and tamper with the pipes. The people who did this knew exactly what they were doing. They knew where to cut. It obviously is something that the Police would have to investigate,” he said.
Modiba further stated that current security features were not sufficient to secure the facility. He said the Gauteng Department of Health was not ruling out the possibility of sabotage as such incidents had occurred in the past.
“The current security arrangement clearly is not adequate and certain things would have to be done differently if we are going to be able to secure that platform. That means we’re going to evaluate our current security arrangements to ensure that we find a way that we can work more closely with stakeholders to ensure we don’t have these kind of incidents,” he said.
