Thulasizwe Hospital to be repurposed due to fewer cases of MDR-TB in Ulundi
The KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Health Department says it wants to repurpose the Thulasizwe Hospital in Ulundi into a primary healthcare facility.
The hospital is currently strictly used for the treatment of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (TB) but provincial authorities say dwindling in-patient numbers have led to it being “grossly under-utilized for quite some time”.
The department attributes this to low TB infection numbers in the area, as well as “improved and de-centralized treatment approaches” that don’t require patients to be admitted.
It now plans to refurbish the “old and dilapidated” facility, which was first established by missionaries, and convert it into a primary healthcare clinic.
This has been met with opposition from some quarters, leading to a demonstration this week.
KZN health MEC Nomagugu Simelane dismissed this disgruntlement, saying officials believed there was a hidden political hand, “with certain personal interests, that is inciting the community and orchestrating public unrest around this matter”.
“Thulasizwe as a TB clinic is no longer viable to be utilized or continue to be used because it is an old building that was built outside of the regulations of the Department of Health but secondly, it is a facility that patients that are no longer sleeping in,” said Simelane.
Simelane added the department had a responsibility to ensure that state resources were used effectively and efficiently, and said the repurposing would support these objectives.
-EWN
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