The Royal Bafokeng Platinum Mine in the North West province has donated a state-of-the-art field hospital to the Provincial Health Department.
The hospital with a 200-bed capacity, costs over R10-million. It will be used as an isolation centre for COVID-19 patients.
The facility will accommodate patients in the Bojanala region which is currently the epicentre of infections in the province.
This state-of-the-art field hospital was funded and developed by the Royal Bafokeng Platinum Mine.
It used to be a change room for miners, and now has been repurposed to cater for COVID-19 patients.
At the official handover of the hospital, Chief Executive Officer for Royal Bafokeng Platinum Mine, Steve Phiri, says the facility will now be managed by the Provincial Health Department.
“We handed it over to the Department of Health and they will be running this facility for all of us, not only for themselves not only for us but for all of us. This facility is not only going to cater for the employees of Royal Bafokeng Platinum, but also members of the community who tested positive.”
The provincial health authorities say the province is now better equipped to curb the spread of the deadly virus.
Health MEC Madoda Sambatha says the hospital will be helpful in the epicentre.
“This is going to help us in the epicentre because in case we have many cases of people who need isolation, this is where you are going to have them and whenever there is developments when they are isolated here, then you are going to take them to hospital beds. This is a bridge between home and hospital. It is a route either from here to hospital or from here back home having been recovered.”
North West Premier Job Mokgoro says partnerships between government and private sector will benefit the most vulnerable.
“The challenges arising from the triple problems of poverty, inequality and unemployment, are such that no one institution can tackle this. The task is too momentous to be tackled by one institution, and this kind of an approach is the way we should go.”
Currently, the field hospital has 40 patients.
In the video below, Royal Bafokeng Platinum Mine donates a 200- bed field hospital to the North West Province:
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