BURNING ISSUES
Helen Joseph Hospital was declared a fire hazard before the 2010 World Cup — little has been fixed since
Had there been a disaster during the 2010 Fifa World Cup, Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg was prepared and on standby to provide emergency medical services. However just months before, it was declared a fire risk by the City of Johannesburg’s Emergency Management Services. At the time nothing was done to make it fire safe — the finding was ‘ignored’. Little appears to have been done since. Health staff say the hospital is still a fire hazard.
In the wake of doctors speaking out about the terrible working and caring conditions at Helen Joseph Hospital (HJH) in Johannesburg, two senior officials, one in the Health Department and one in the City of Johannesburg (COJ), have come forward to reveal that the hospital had been condemned as a fire hazard before 2010 and that, at the time, the Gauteng provincial health department and hospital CEO were fully aware of this. Maverick Citizen also has evidence that suggests next to nothing has been done to make the hospital fire safe since then.
Read more in Daily Maverick: “Helen Joseph doctors speak out — ‘we won’t give up without a fight’ ”
The doctor concerned, who has asked not to be named for fear of victimisation, was at the time a senior official in charge of the Gauteng Health Department Emergency Medical Services. In the months before the 2010 Fifa World Cup, held in South Africa that year, the doctor was among the people tasked with preparing Helen Joseph Hospital to meet Fifa’s safety standards in case of a disaster.
The entrance to the Helen Joseph Hospital, Johannesburg, 17 November 2022. (Photo: Shiraaz Mohamed)
At the time ANC heavyweight Brian Hlongwa (later fingered by the SIU in a massive corruption scandal) was MEC for Health; the head of department was Kamy Chetty (now CEO of the NHLS); and the hospital CEO was Gladys Bogoshi, who has gone on to become the CEO of Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, the scene of a devastating fire in April 2021.
‘Total mess’
According to the doctor, when she started at Helen Joseph it was a “total mess” and also a potential disaster itself. The doctor claims that in trying to liaise with CEO Bogoshi “we kept hitting heads”. Nonetheless, she says she did her best to put systems in place, including a communications centre.
Things came to a head when, just months before the World Cup was due to kick off, an attempt was made to run a mock disaster “to assess if we had everything in place”.
This required close liaison with the City of Johannesburg to ensure the availability of fire engines, paramedics and so on. Maverick Citizen spoke to one of the most senior officials in the COJ at the time who is now retired — he too requested anonymity.
He confirmed the doctor’s account and told us that senior management at Helen Joseph had been told by the COJ that they “couldn’t run a mock disaster because of the fire safety risks at the hospital.” According to the official, inspections by the COJ’s Emergency Management Services and fire officials that had taken place in 2009 had found that the hospital was a fire hazard.
He confirmed that the findings had been formally reported to the hospital and the Gauteng health department, but “they were ignored” because they did not want to jeopardise the World Cup. When asked what action had been taken for non-compliance he responded:
“Bylaws were not enforceable due to some loopholes in the justice system. So citations issued were ignored without consequences.”
‘Blocked hoses, broken hydrants, fire escapes bolted closed’
On being told of the fire risk by the COJ the doctor said:
“I went and checked all the fire hoses, every one of them was blocked; all the hydrants were broken and some of the fire escapes were bolted closed.”
The doctor says she had to report her findings to the senior management in the province and the hospital because “she was unable to confirm that Helen Joseph would be capable of responding to a disaster”.
The entrance to the Helen Joseph Hospital emergency unit. Johannesburg, 17 November 2022. (Photo: Shiraaz Mohamed)
She also commissioned a private fire inspection, which confirmed the concerns of the COJ.
“I couldn’t get anyone from provincial or local government to come through. They weren’t interested. I had no right to do this, but I needed to cover myself.”
This week Charlotte Maxeke CEO Bogoshi told us she had “no recollection of the report from the COJ condemning the hospital as a fire hazard.” As a result no steps were taken to address fire risk; “N/A” responded Bogoshi.
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On 10 June 2010, the day before the start of the World Cup, the doctor reports that the hospital was visited by Kamy Chetty, the Gauteng HOD, and the then chief operating officer in the department who “wanted to see all the problems”.
When she was contacted this week Chetty too said:
“I don’t recall any report from COJ on Helen Joseph. I would suggest you check with Gauteng Infrastructure dept as they would be the recipients if such a report was given. It will be difficult for me to remember what meetings I had 12 years ago. According to my records, I was in Pretoria. I also would not have been responsible to assess readiness as there was an expert team which did that. I did visit hospitals regularly, including Helen Joseph.”
However, the next day the doctor was relieved of her duties as head of EMS at the hospital and replaced with another doctor, newly qualified in emergency medicine and far less experienced.
“I went on sick leave and when I came back I was relieved of my position, and after a few months was moved to [another post] at a lower salary to teach at Wits University.”
Still not safe?
This week in a WhatsApp group that includes the Minister of Health and many other senior officials in the Health Department, as well as activists, media and members of the Progressive Health Forum (PHF), the doctor said she was “very proud of my colleagues at HJH standing up” [and speaking about the conditions there]. She said she had not previously gone public about what had happened in 2010 “from the fear of how my career changed course and continues to do so.”
She calls it an “irony that nothing was done except that the CEO at the time, who knew what was happening, was moved to Charlotte Maxeke where a tragedy occurred with the fire.”
Read more in Daily Maverick: “Charlotte Maxeke Hospital is still gasping for breath, a year after it flatlined in a fire”; and “Devastating Charlotte Maxeke hospital fire was an act of arson — police forensic report”
As far as could be established, it appears next to nothing has been done since 2010 to make Helen Joseph Hospital fire safe. In fact, minutes obtained by Maverick Citizen of a Disaster Management Committee meeting at HJH held on 28 February 2020 recorded that a disaster drill should be conducted every 12 months, but couldn’t because “at the moment we do not have the following:
- Floor Plan for the hospital.
- No fire detection system.
- Alarm system installation not completed.”
This week a senior doctor at the hospital said that an internal assessment of fire safety had been conducted after the fire at Charlotte Maxeke in April 2021, but that as far as he could see no action had followed. He said doctors in Gauteng face a dilemma as they feel most of their hospitals do not meet fire safety standards, but they have no alternative other than to continue working in them because their patients will suffer:
“We cannot afford healthcare services to just stop if another hospital is closed. You saw what happened as a result of the closure of Charlotte Maxeke.”
Robert Mulaudzi, spokesperson for Johannesburg Emergency Management services, told Maverick Citizen that records from 2010 were not available because files are discarded after five years. He said when Helen Joseph was last inspected in September 2021 “the area which was inspected is the psychiatric section as it is a stand alone building and it was cleared to be safe.”
According to Mulaudzi “inspections are conducted at least once per year and all the three main hospitals which fall under our jurisdiction have been inspected, namely Bara, Helen Joseph and Charlotte Maxeke.”
Questions sent by Maverick Citizen to the CEO of Helen Joseph were referred to the Gauteng Department of Health. Questions sent to the department (see below) went unanswered. DM/MC
The questions to officials went unanswered:
To Gauteng Health Department:
I am following up on an allegation that prior to the World Cup in 2010 Helen Joseph hospital had been condemned as a fire hazard by the City of Johannesburg emergency services.
- Are you able to confirm this from your records?
- Does Helen Joseph hospital have a valid fire clearance certificate now?
- How often are hospitals inspected for fire and infrastructure safety? By who?
- Can a hospital or clinic be declared a fire hazard and therefore be prevented from operating?
- What steps follow if this happens?
- Who is responsible for ensuring that all health facilities have equipment and infrastructure in compliance with fire regulations?
To CEO of Helen Joseph Hospital, Dr Ncha:
- Does Helen Joseph hospital have a valid fire clearance certificate?
- Does it have a floor plan in case of an emergency?
- Is there a working fire detection system?
- How often are hospitals inspected for fire and infrastructure safety?
Does the ANC have a valid plan, a working detection system, and a regular inspection process for the country? It ought to be parliament which is nothing less than an expensive joke for policy direction and implementation management. Viva, ANC, Viva.