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- More than 50 elective operations were cancelled at the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital because of a heating systems failure.
- Jack Bloom said the temperatures in the operating theatres were as low as eight degrees.
- A surgeon at the hospital says the body's temperature drops under anaesthesia.
More than 50 elective cases were cancelled at the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital because the heating system failed, according to the DA's Jack Bloom.
Bloom said temperatures in the operating theatres were as low as eight degrees. For safety reasons, it needed to be about 18 degrees.
One of the surgeons at the hospital, who asked not to be named, said this was due to the body's temperature dropping under anaesthesia.
"This can have several potentially detrimental implications," he said.
And, he added, it's "not fun" for staff to work under such conditions.
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In the past few days, the city was hit by a cold front.
Bloom said the hospital had been forced to cancel surgeries because the heating system failed.
He added:
Bloom said it was disappointing that a lack of maintenance and equipment failure caused patients to suffer.
"Professional management is needed to fix this hospital's infrastructure, instead of the perpetual bungling and corruption in the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development," he said.
In May, Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, in a written reply to the provincial legislature, said a lack of funds, load shedding, no beds for the intensive and high care units, and industrial action were some of the factors that led to the cancellation of more than 2 000 operations at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital in less than 18 months.
This was after the DA had asked how many operations had been deferred or cancelled in 2022 and 2023.
READ | 'Patients are hugely distressed': More than 2 000 operations cancelled at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital
Nkomo-Ralehoko replied that 1 773 operations in 2022 and 445 in 2023 had been affected.
Earlier this year, it was reported the hospital was just one of the public healthcare facilities that had a long waiting list for surgeries.
At the time, the health department said 3 132 patients were waiting on surgeries at the hospital.
Nkomo-Ralehoko said 1.3% of operations were cancelled or deferred due to factors that could have been avoided with better management.
Gauteng Health spokesperson Motalatale Modiba said the department was aware of the matter.
"However, the cancellations were not a result of the cold weather but the low temperature in our theatres.
"The contractor is on-site attending to the matter," he said.
