Durban - The cost of the ambitious, privately funded revamp of the KwaZulu-Natal Children’s Hospital - a “gift” to the provincial health department – has more than doubled to R540 million, with R400m still needed to complete it
, a National Council of Provinces (NCOP) delegation was told on Wednesday.
The project, which is being funded by donations collected by the hospital trust, was launched by Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo in July 2010, with the work commencing the following year.
At the time of the launch the total cost was estimated at between R230m and R250m. But on Wednesday, the trust’s chief executive, Dr Arthi Ramkissoon, explained how it had escalated.
“The old facility consists of seven separate buildings, and during the planning process we realised there would be a need for an additional, six-storey building. This building will house a theatre for minor procedures, X-ray units, oral-facial clinic, some wards and basement parking,” she said.
“Because we will be servicing children, we can’t get in and out from building to building, so we will have to connect all the buildings horizontally and vertically.”
Ramkissoon said the trust had raised R120m in two years.
The health department pledged R50m towards the overall infrastructure costs and would also budget for the operational and maintenance costs on completion.
“When we started the project, we set the completion deadline to five years. We completed phase one in February 2012, and last year we started with phase two.
“Hopefully we will make the deadline, and depending on the flowing of funds from donors, we might complete before deadline,” she said.
The first phase consists of a neuro-development assessment centre and a training centre at the upper level, which will be used to train health staff on paediatric-related functions.
The centre’s register has more than 700 patients since it started and more than 1 000 patients have been attended to.
The NCOP delegation, accompanied by health department officials including acting head Dr Sibongile Zungu, were on the second day of it’s Provincial Week programme, in which it spends a week in each of the nine provinces, assessing provincial government service delivery projects.
Zungu explained that the trust was established for the purposes of fundraising only.
“Once the project is completed, the trust will officially hand the facility to the department as a gift. No payment will be made once the facility is up and running,” she said.
Zungu said Public Works had assisted with planning and inspections.
Daily News