Residents of Willows are delighted to see that the empty buildings at the back of the National Hospital in Bloemfontein that drew all sorts of unsavoury caracters, are now being demolished.
Bloem News wrote about these buildings on 6 July. These buildings that were built on the grounds of the National Hospital were intended to house cancer patients, but were never used. They became abandoned and over the years they were used by homeless people. Residents of George Home Street in which the building are situated, as well as people from security groups, reported several insidents here.
Waste including empty food containers as well as medical waste was seen lying in heaps in these buildings along with belongings of people sleeping there from time to time.
Mariette Pittaway, the DA Free State spokesperson on Health and Education, brought the situasion of unlawful people living in the abandoned buildings under the attention of the MEC’s for Health and Public Works.
“These illegal inhabitants have full access day and night to roam the hospital grounds and can enter all the hospital’s buildings.”
She says the safety of staff and patients at the Free States’ health care institutions, particularly the public hospitals are alarmingly inadequate.
Some of the security threats date back to 2010, when a 35-year-old doctor, who was specialising in paediatrics, was hit over the head with a brick and raped by three men at Pelonomi Regional Hospital in Bloemfontein.
In 2019, another doctor was robbed at gunpoint at the same hospital, just days after an attempted rape of a 24-year-old female doctor.
“Unfortunately, the safety concerns have not changed. Recent incidents at the hospital further underscore the urgency of addressing this issue. Two cars were stolen from the premises at this hospital due to the lack of proper security.”
Pittaway says the safety of patients and those working within these facilities should never be compromised. “Public hospitals must prioritise implementing comprehensive security protocols to prevent such incidents from recurring. Every individual who enters a healthcare facility, whether as a patient seeking medical attention, a healthcare professional providing care, or a concerned family member, deserves to feel safe and secure,” she says.
Workers with white overalls were cleaning the grounds on Friday and burning the waste and long grass and weeds surrounding the buildings.
