About The Gugulethu District Hospital Campaign
Our Mission
Despite the unwavering dedication of the healthcare workers at KTC Day Hospital, the hospital is tiny, understaffed, unhygienic, vulnerable, inaccessible, and under-resourced, and we call on the government to provide quality healthcare the citizens of Gugulethu deserve with a new district hospital.
The Movement for Change and Social Justice (MCSJ) launched a campaign for a new district hospital, in alliance with several other community organizations (AIDC, Unite Behind, PHM, Neighborhood Watch and others). In 2019, the government pledged to build a new district hospital in 2022, promising its completion by 2024. However, the COVID-19 pandemic delayed progress, and the government’s promise remains unfulfilled. MCSJ and allies continue to campaign for a new hospital until the government honors its obligation. By stalling the construction of the new district hospital, the government deprives the residents of Gugulethu and the surrounding areas of their constitutional right to healthcare.
History of KTC Day Hospital
The hospital has many issues that affect patient care and health. The healthcare workers are doing their best with the resources they have, however it is the responsibility of the government to ensure that those are provided. The campaign aims to bring the hospital’s infrastructural issues to light and pressure the government to keep their promise.
The KTC Day Hospital was built in Gugulethu in 1965 for a population of 27,000. Now, Gugulethu has a population of over 100,000, and the 1960s infrastructure is unchanged. KTC has the only nearby 24-hour trauma center, which also serves non-Gugulethu residents. So, the hospital ultimately assists 500,000 people, from both inside and outside of Gugulethu, seeing around 600 to 700 patients a day. The small 1965 center is no match for its current patient volume.
The trauma center is too small to accommodate the population it serves. The facility is unable to treat serious injuries, such as gunshot wounds, because KTC does not have an operating theatre. Instead, staff can only stabilize patients before transferring them to another hospital. However, transferring patients is difficult because the hospital only has two ambulances.
The Midwife Obstetrics Unit (MOU) is also extremely cramped. There are not enough beds, and sometimes pregnant patients sleep on the floor. The overcrowding of people and beds means family members, including expecting fathers, are sometimes excluded from the labor process, for both spatial and privacy reasons. Moreover, the wear and tear of over 50 years on this unit has become evident: the wood ceiling is rotting and leaking.
Patients and staff of the hospital face many safety concerns. There is insufficient parking inside the gates for patients and staff. Instead, they must park in other locations and walk to the hospital—even if they are having a medical emergency. Also, patients queue outside, regardless of weather conditions, standing outside on cold, windy, and rainy days. Queuing makes them the targets of hijacking and muggings. On June 13, 2023, hospital security guards at KTC became victims of an armed robbery. This violent attack shut down all hospital operations for the rest of the day, depriving hundreds of people access to healthcare services.
Government budget cuts have made it even more difficult to provide quality services to the 500,000 people who rely on this undersized hospital because it leaves positions unfilled and resources scarce. A larger district hospital is essential to accommodate not only a higher volume of patients, but the more complex health issues that may require overnight care and medical observation as well.
Gugulethu citizens were promised a new district hospital by 2024, but the construction of this new hospital has yet to begin as of June 2023. Residents have been protesting for quicker action from the government for at least four years. A larger protest was carried out by several hundred Gugulethu citizens and a local NGO, known as the Movement for Change and Social Justice (MCSJ), in 2019. You can read more about this demonstration here.