HOSPERSA QUESTIONS HOSPITAL CEILING COLLAPSE
The Health and Other Service Personnel Trade Union of South Africa (Hospersa) is shocked by reports of a collapsed roof at Charlotte Maxeke Academy Hospital. Hospersa questions the reasons leading to this incident and now wishes to be part of the investigation. The Union calls upon the Chief Inspector of the Department of Labour (DoL) to address the dismal findings in their audits of the health facilities, where Gauteng was found to have a compliance rate of a shocking nine percent.
Yesterday afternoon news broke of a structural collapse at one of Johannesburg’s busy hospitals, Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital. It was reported that the roof caved in at the hospital’s main entrance area, trapping people under the rubble. Five people were reportedly injured, including two construction workers, two patients and a hospital staff member. The collapse is not reported to have been a direct result of the construction work undertaken to repair water leaks. Civil engineers interviewed by the media have come out expressing their concerns on what seems to have been amateur work done by the contractor. According to reports, the engineers questioned the inferior material used during the roof repairs which could have led to the collapse. Government has since put the blame solely on the contractor and has since removed them from completing the repairs at hospital.
“It is far too early to start shifting blame now,” said Hospersa manager dealing with OHS, Fazeela Fayers. “We are currently busy interviewing our members at the hospital to get our own version of the events leading up to this unfortunate incident,” said Fayers.
“We will demand to form part of the investigation into the incident, so that we can also participate while ensuring that no stone is left unturned to identify the true cause and avoid such incidents happening in future,” she said. “The problem of OHS violations in the health sector is extreme – it is a national problem, and there are daily compromises to the safety of the workforce, patients and the public. We demand that the DoL acts upon the results of its own report, and puts an urgent process into place immediately. This must include the involvement of trade union representatives as required by the relevant legislation,” concluded Fayers.