NCOP
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO. 367
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 02 September 2011
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 27)
Mr R A Lees (DA-KZN) to ask the Minister of Health:
(1) (a) On how many occasions did the lifts breakdown in the Newcastle
Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal during the past 12 months up to the latest
specified date for which information is available, (b) for how many
days were they nonoperational and (c) what were the reasons for the
breakdown in each occasion;
(2) whether the reoccurring reasons for these breakdowns have been found;
if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, (a) how have these
reoccurring faults been addressed, (b) what are the reasons for the
lifts being out of order, (c) how long have these causes been damaging
the lifts, (d) why have they not been resolved, (e) when will they be
resolved and (f) what are the further relevant details;
(3) whether patients are required to walk up and down the stairs to and
from the operating theatres in cases where these lifts are not in
working order; if not, how are (a) patients, (b) corpses and (c)
suppliers moved between the (i) floors and (ii) operating rooms; if
so, how is this acceptable from a medical point of view?
CW467E
REPLY:
According to the Hospital in question â
1) (a) There were 64 breakdowns from August 2010 to September 2011;
(b) The lifts were not operational for 64 days;
(c) The following are the main reasons for the breakdowns:
⢠the lifts were old (more than 26 years old);
⢠there was water leakage from the roof which was affecting
the PLC printed circuit boards;
⢠the Hospital further alleged abuse of the lifts by visitors
to the institution.
2) (a) The recurring problems were identified and the following
measures were taken:
⢠several meetings were held with the service provider;
⢠an investigation was conducted and the problem was linked to
water leakage in the lift room;
⢠the replacement of the roof was already in the
infrastructure plan for 2011-2012;
⢠as an interim measure, a temporary canopy was built over the
lifts by the hospital maintenance to prevent water leakage.
(b) The reason for the lifts being out of order was due to the water
leakage;
(c) The water leakage has been going on for the past 3 years;
(d) The hospital was intending to replace the roof in the lift room
and this was budgeted for in the 2011-2012 infrastructure plans;
(e) It is envisaged that the project will start on 01 November 2011;
(f) During a meeting between the Department of Health and the
service provider (Schindler), it was agreed that an employee
from Schindler will monitor that the lifts are operational.
According to the reported received, the service provider has not
honoured this agreement. As a result the personnel from the
hospital maintenance department were fixing what they can each
time there were problems with the lifts. It was further
envisaged that the tender for the roofs will be awarded in
October 2011. A full upgrade was to start after the roofs had
been fixed.
3) (a) Theatre patients were not required to walk up and down as
all the theatres were on the third level of the coreblock, where
the lifts are always in operation. Patients from theatre were
admitted into wards on level 3 and extra space was made on the
ground floor for new admissions, i.e ward 1;
(b) The Hospital resorted to using folding stretchers from emergency
medical rescue services to remove bodies from levels 4 and 5 to
the lifts on the coreblock which were always functional;
(c) Linen, food and other supplies were moved using the staircases
from levels 3 to 5. On the issue of acceptability from a medical
point of view, it was reported that no patients were walking to
or from theatre.
END.