Surgical supplies recycled at Bara

Patients at Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital are at a high risk of infection because a shortage of basic surgical supplies is forcing staff to re-use some consumables.

Basic supplies such as gloves, disposable linen and cleaning swabs have been exhausted. Used disposable oxygen masks have reportedly been washed and re-used, risking cross-infection.

Efforts to get comment from the hospital CEO, Dr Sandile Mfenyane, failed.

DA health MPL Jack Bloom said part of the problem was that the Gauteng health department did not pay suppliers on time.

"The hospital is a victim of the department's inefficiency. The CEO should be fighting for the hospital. It is unacceptable that oxygen masks have to be re-used. And you can't do an operation if you don't have clean linen.

"The problems at Bara have gone on for too long. We need to know what is being done to solve them. We must get answers," he said.

The hospital has long suffered from over crowding, staff shortages, unhygienic wards, lack of medical supplies and even patients sharing beds.

A spokesman for the Health and Other Services Personnel Trade Union of SA, Michelle Connolly, said: "Though this sounds bad, if we look at the performance of other provincial health departments we should not be surprised.

"The sad reality is that our health service . has actually imploded."

Connolly said that despite the good intentions of Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, health institutions are mismanaged.

The union has asked Motsoaledi to investigate problems in the KwaZulu-Natal health department. Desperately needed hi-tech equipment in the province has been in disrepair for months.