New Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital psychiatric ward to expand mental healthcare
The Gauteng Health Department and Islamic Relief South Africa have begun renovations of an old facility at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital – which will be converted into a psychiatric ward.
The ward will prioritize mental health problems – helping people with mental illness.
The Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital hosted a sod-turning ceremony earlier today – to kickstart the project.
A 100-year-old building at the hospital – will be converted into a psychiatric ward.
The project is expected to take six weeks to complete – and will see mental health patients getting special medical attention.
Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital CEO Dr Nkele Lesia said it’s a great initiative to expand mental healthcare access.
“We’ve got a responsibility to provide care for mental healthcare users. We currently have 165 acute mental healthcare beds, and we are the hospital with the biggest number of acute mental healthcare beds.
“Despite that, we still experience challenges because the bed capacity is not enough for the community that we serve.”
The project comes in the shadow of the Life Esidimeni tragedy where some 144 psychiatric patients died after being transferred to substandard facilities.
The inquest into Life Esidimeni is ongoing.
-EWN
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