104-year old hospital in Durban to close down

The 104-year-old McCord Hospital in Durban will be closing down this week after unsuccessful negotiations for a takeover by the province's health department, the hospital's board said on Tuesday.

 

"The board of McCord Hospital sincerely regrets the termination of the negotiations aimed at selling the hospital to the KwaZulu-Natal department of health," the board said in a statement.

 

"This means that the hospital will be closed down."

 

The hospital would be shut down on September 20 and its staff would be unemployed.

 

The reason for its closure was due to reduced funding.

 

"This reduction in income meant that the hospital could no longer viably operate," the statement said.

 

The board said the department had refused to offer a realistic price for the hospital's assets.

 

"The department's final offer was insufficient to even cover all of the hospital's liabilities."

 

Earlier this year the hospital was slated for closure after the department had opted not to renew its annual subsidy.

 

At the end of January, the province's health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo announced that the department had made an offer to take over the hospital and this had been accepted by the hospital board.

 

However, on August 15, the MEC's spokesman Sam Mkhwanazi said in a statement that only negotiations had taken place and there was an agreement that was "awaiting to be signed to effect the take-over of McCord Hospital by the provincial government by September 2013."

 

Mkhwanazi could not immediately comment.

 

-Sapa