Screams and the crashing sound of a roof collapsing. Emergency services conducting a search and rescue operation for people trapped in the rubble. These were scenes earlier this month at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, after the roof in the foyer collapsed. Several people were injured but there were no fatalities. The roof had recently been waterproofed and early claims from Gauteng’s infrastructure development MEC suggest poor workmanship may have been to blame.
But the state of hospital infrastructure is not the only problem facing health care in Johannesburg and elsewhere in South Africa.