Kuruman
In a significant boost to emergency healthcare services, the Kuruman District Hospital has launched a temporary Accidents and Emergency (A&E) unit. The unit was officially opened by the Acting Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Health in the Northern Cape, Ms. Mase Manopole.
The temporary unit is equipped with eight medical beds, triage and resuscitation rooms, isolation rooms with negative air pressure, and a 20-seat waiting area with an accessible ramp. This interim solution will serve the community until a permanent 45-bed A&E facility is constructed.
According to Ms. Manopole, the hospital’s previous A&E unit was woefully inadequate, with only two beds to serve an estimated population of 271,000 people. “This is infrastructure we inherited from the previous regime, designed to serve only a section of the population and never intended to meet the needs of the entire community,” she said.
The Acting MEC emphasized that the new unit is a crucial step towards improving emergency healthcare services in the province. “We are not only treating patients today; we are training the doctors who will serve our communities tomorrow,” she said.
The launch of the temporary A&E unit coincides with the placement of 245 Community Service Practitioners across Northern Cape health facilities. Ms. Manopole noted that the expanded and compliant infrastructure would provide these young healthcare professionals with high-quality learning environments.
In a significant development, the Ga-Segonyana Local Municipality has donated three hectares of land to the John Taolo Gaetsewe District Department of Health to support plans for the development of a future Regional Hospital. The Acting MEC welcomed the announcement, saying it was “integrated governance at its best.”
Construction of the permanent 45-bed A&E facility is scheduled to commence within the next two months as part of the 2026/2027 financial year infrastructure programme.
