The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng has raised the alarm over the sharp rise in hospital-acquired infections across Gauteng’s public hospitals.

DA Health Shadow MEC, Jack Bloom, says over 7 700 patients contracted infections during a hospital stay last year, including many antibiotic-resistant and life-threatening infections.

The Charlotte Maxeke Hospital has been identified as the worst hospital with an 11%, meaning every one in 10 patients picks up an infection other than what they were admitted for.

Bloom says this was revealed in a written response in the Gauteng Legislature.

“The department itself admits that the problem is that they’ve got severe staff shortages. They’ve got broken equipment, and most (what’s) concerning is that they don’t have enough cleaners, and they don’t have enough proper soap or enough clean linen. They say that the lack of clean linen or sufficient linen is also a problem because they have to keep reusing sheets. So obviously that’s an infection risk as well as a shortage of basic clean materials. And I would say overall it’s just poor management.”

1 in 10 patients at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital got a hospital-acquired infection in 2024.
7743 infections across Gauteng hospitals last year
Reasons?
• Staff & linen shortages
• No soap
• Overcrowding
#RescueSA #DA_GPL #Health @JackBloomDA
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— Democratic Alliance Gauteng Legislature (@DA_GPL) July 29, 2025