Only a few patients remain at the Fort Grey Tuberculosis (TB) Hospital near the East London Airport, and by the end of this month no patients will be attended to at the facility.
There has been much confusion over the reason for the closure, with some blaming it on a land dispute between the East London TB Association (ELTBA) and controversial Durban businessman Sateesh Isseri.
In 2010, Isseri, who was contracted to manage the South African National Tuberculosis Association (Santa) facility, bought a dozen hospitals.
In January he was ordered by the Supreme Court of Appeal to hand back ownership of Fort Grey to the East London Tuburculosis Association (ELTBA) after his appeal failed.
Hospital senior executive Nonceba Nqini said that in 2005 the provincial health department moved into the facility, previously run by Santa to treat what is known as normal TB patients, and continued the work of Santa.
“In 2007, when multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extreme drug resistant (XDR) TB cases increased, the department phased out normal TB treatment at this facility.
“The numbers were mounting for MDR and XDR and the institution was never meant to manage these cases.
“So for some time we were not so compliant with MDR and XDR (treatment) and we had to put in extra effort to comply,” she said.
Because the structure did not belong to the department it was impossible to upgrade it to treat MDR and XDR patients. There was major concern about infection control because nurses and medical officers worked in situations where the chance of contracting TB was extremely high.
Taking a look at the vacant female ward, the Dispatch team saw the danger that nurses, wearing masks for their entire shifts, were exposed to.
The 162-bed hospital, which serves patients from Alfred Nzo, Joe Gqabi, Buffalo City, Amathole, OR Tambo and Chris Hani municipalities, now has only a few male patients in the wards.
They are expected to vacate the premises by March 18. The facility sees close to 500 out-patients each month.
Patients are all being moved to a new unit at Nqubela TB Hospital in Mdantsane, where a new state-of-the-art MDR and XDR wing was opened for patients and staff from Fort Grey.
The new wing cost R18-million including equipment and furniture.
The 360-bed facility has been created to comply with infection control policies, and the nurses’ station is secured with glass.
“Nqubela is government-owned with huge capacity to accommodate all the MDR and XDR cases in the province. Both these hospitals are within BCM, so there was a form of redundancy,” said Nqini. — vuyiswav@dispatch.co.za