Limpopo Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba officially opened the newly revamped intensive care unit (ICU) at Tshilidzini Hospital last week.
The newly revamped ward has the capacity for 12 combined ICU beds, two of which will be dedicated to paediatric patients. Each bed will have special ventilators that cater for patients who need special care.
Ramathuba said that Tshilidzini Hospital was one of the health facilities that required serious infrastructure overhauling and that, working in collaboration with the national department of health (since this is one of their projects), they were hopeful that they would be able to finally achieve the desired results, one ward at a time.
"We are delighted to hand over this top-class facility that has been revamped to cater for our patients with critical conditions. The ward is furnished with high-flow oxygen machines and ICU beds, and will be used for patients in need of oxygen and who are in critical condition," MEC Ramathuba said.
According to the MEC, Tshilidzini Hospital was identified as one of the hospitals to be piloted for the National Health Insurance (NHI) roll-out, which meant that a new hospital was supposed to be built. But since the new hospital has not been built yet, they decided to use the Covid-19 budget funds to change things around for the better themselves.