Gutted hospital reopens
PROUD: Badroodien PROUD: Badroodien
The City of Cape Town’s Health Department reopened the Ikhwezi Community Day Centre in Gugulethu yesterday after seven months spent on restorations, necessitated by an arson attack in May.
Councillor Zahid Badroodien says: “We are proud to once again be able to offer residents a world-class health
service at this facility.
“Services are fully integrated and electronic appointments for all services will commence within a couple of weeks.”
He said it cost R8.1 million to fix the facility, of which the insurance paid R4.9 million.
“The medicines and vaccines stored in the pharmacy alone were worth R1 million, but the cost of this irrational act goes well beyond the budget that was spent.”
The facility sees 500 patients a day.
This year, the plan for Ikhwezi was to extend the reception area, the staff room and add extra toilets but that would no longer happen, said Badroodien.
“Clients who abandoned their treatment due to the inconvenience of having to visit another facility will pay the price of disease progression; children who did not receive immunisation at their due dates are vulnerable to outbreaks of disease.
“We’ll never know how many unwanted pregnancies will result from family planning methods that were not given in time or the extent of the spread of disease because it was not diagnosed in time.”
A R50 000 reward is being offered for information that will lead to the arrest and successful conviction of those responsible for the arson attack.
Anyone with information can call their nearest police station or 10111.