Greenville Hospital patients still battling to access services

Patients at Greenville Hospital in eastern Mpondoland say infrastructure problems continue to hamper their access to health care more than a year after flooding forced parts of the rundown facility to shut down.

Zandile Rhadebe, 53, of Tyani, Mbizana, said conditions inside the hospital remained largely unchanged since the February 2025 floods, though improvements had been made to the exterior and the water supply system had been fixed.

In May, after years of protests and com­plaints over the dire con­di­tions at the hos­pital, the Eastern Cape health depart­ment began rolling out a multi-phased development project to turn it into a state-of-the-art facil­ity.

Health MEC Ntan­dokazi Capa said at the time that the gov­ern­ment would spend more than R400m on upgrad­ing the hos­pital over sev­eral phases.

This week, Rhadebe said patients were often made to wait outside for services because some areas of the building were still unsafe.

“You go there to heal, but because of the infrastructure, you struggle.”

While acknowledging that the staff continued to assist patients in difficult conditions, Rhadebe said the hospital’s damp, crumbling walls and ageing buildings remained a concern.

“It looks better on the outside, but inside it is still the same. Nothing has really changed.

“We want lasting improvements, not temporary changes linked to official visits,” she said.

“The walls are still damp and crumbling. We still wait outside because there is no infrastructure.”

Rhadebe said she was hopeful after Capa’s visit to the hospital last year but stressed that patients wanted to experience improvements firsthand.

She said many residents in the Mbizana area relied on the hospital as their nearest public health facility and had limited alternatives when services were disrupted.

Greenville Hospital board chair Benedictor Dazela said the infrastructure upgrades had been constrained by the limited land available and the need to keep the hospital operational during construction.

“There is no space to build more buildings without interrupting services, and some walls were vibrating and threatening to fall, so we had to move patients,” Dazela said.

He said patients were transferred to neighbouring hospitals to reduce risk.

TB patients were moved to the Khotsong TB Hospital in the Alfred Nzo district, while others were taken to St Patrick’s Hospital in the OR Tambo district.

Dazela said the hospital board held regular meetings to monitor and report on progress of the development project.

Temporary prefabricated structures had been installed to support services, including clinics, human resources offices and accommodation for nurses.

Dazela said the refurbishment was being implemented in phases due to the land limitations.

“We will first prioritise staff rooms on the left before the main consulting rooms on the right.”

He said patient care remained the hospital’s main focus and acknowledged that infrastructure challenges continued to affect services.

The hospital’s water supply issues had been resolved and contractors had been instructed to repair additional rooms to reduce the need to transfer patients to facilities in other towns.

Eastern Cape health department spokesperson Camagwini Mavovana said repair work had begun on parts of the existing buildings.

She said the project followed a layered implementation model, with construction being carried out in sections so the hospital could remain operational.

“The work was restored once the contractor had completed civil repairs, including declogging blocked pipelines and making provisions to prevent future water ingress,” Mavovana said.

The remaining steps included a decanting process, where services were temporarily relocated to allow for further construction.

“This is not just about refurbishment. A new facility, so to speak, is being built.”

She said the final phase involved constructing the entire infrastructure, with completion expected in about November 2027 or early 2028.