According to experts, there is no single reason for Africa’s seemingly remarkable escape from the worst of Covid-19 thus far. It has been suggested that Africa’s relatively young population might be a factor. The WHO says that across the continent, high rates of tuberculosis, HIV, polio and Ebola, means well-trained medical professionals and the infrastructure and expertise are available to handle a pandemic. It seems Africa’s battles have created a society that has a rare resilience. Some say outh Africa’s densely populated townships may have provided the right environment for people to develop immunity to similar viruses. The fact remains that South Africa built hospitals in preparation for a disaster that hasn’t happened. Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health, asks why these Covid-19 field hospitals are being kept operational, at great expense, with empty beds. – Melani Nathan
R380,000 a day for empty beds at Nasrec Covid-19 hospital
By Jack Bloom MPL – DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health
Only 34 patients have been admitted to the 1,000-bed Nasrec field hospital so far this month, but R380 a day is being paid for each empty bed.
Acting Gauteng Health MEC Jacob Mamabolo revealed this yesterday in an oral reply to my questions at a virtual sitting of the Gauteng Legislature.
According to Mamabolo, there is a fixed cost per bed of R380 a day, and R390 a day for each patient.
Read also: How the world sees SA: Why is SA’s Covid death rate lower than the UK?
This means that about R380 000 a day is being paid for 1000 empty beds in terms of a 6 month contract with the Johannesburg ExpoCentre. The contract expires on 31 January next year so the last three months of the contract is likely to cost more than R32mn.
This is extremely wasteful and cannot be justified even if we had a second wave of COVID-19 infections as fewer than 10% of the NASREC beds were used at the peak of the epidemic in July.
It would be far better to contract with private hospitals to take public patients if state hospitals ever overflow with COVID-19 patients.
I have requested the Auditor-General to investigate the NASREC contract which I suspect contravenes good practice and is possibly corrupt.
Read also: Inside Covid-19: Vaccine race; SA’s PANDA goes global; pandemic damages, scars minds
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