Several health facilities have been forced to close across the City of Cape Town, with services suspended amid the continued taxi strike, violence and the disruption of transport in the Cape Metropole.
On Monday morning, staff were unable to get to their workplaces because of roads being closed and violence in certain areas.
“We are in regular communication with the Provincial Joint Operations Centre to monitor the safety of both our staff and patients. Unfortunately, we are again forced to operate at a reduced capacity within the Cape Metropole as well as certain rural areas,” said Dr Saadiq Kariem, the chief of operations at the Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness.
Among the facilities impacted were those in Philippi, Nyanga, Crossroads, Nolungile and Gugulethu.
At central hospitals (Tygerberg, Red Cross and Groote Schuur), elective surgery remains postponed. Only emergency surgery will be conducted, outpatients have been advised to attend their appointments only if it is safe to do so but will experience longer waiting times, while family members have been encouraged to collect discharged patients if it is safe for them to do so.
This is as a planned media update on the progress of the Violence Prevention Unit (VPU) at the Delft Community Health Centre was also postponed on Monday.
The engagement was to be hosted by Premier Alan Winde, Western Cape Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo and Community Safety MEC Reagen Allen.
The engagement was indefinitely postponed “due to the current safety concerns as well as Santaco’s decision to continue with its taxi strike”, the provincial government said.
In his State of the Province Address earlier this year, Winde said the dedicated VPU would be the first violence prevention unit established by a government in South Africa.
“Based on the Cardiff Model for Violence Prevention, the VPU will use the data in our health-care facilities to identify and design unique interventions in our communities across the Western Cape.
“As such, this will strengthen the Western Cape government’s approach to evidence-based decision making for crime fighting and crime prevention.
“By providing our safety stakeholders both in government and civil society with these interventions, we can use a whole-of-society approach to keep residents safe,” a statement read.
Cape Times