GP health working to address hospital bed shortage

This follows social media videos showing heavily pregnant women sleeping on benches at hospitals due to a lack of beds, caused by overcrowding at maternity wards.

Edenvale Hospital is the latest facility where several women complained of a lack of beds at the troubled hospital.

This comes as anti-migrant groups have staged protests outside health facilities across the country, including in Gauteng, where they blocked foreign nationals from accessing healthcare facilities while accusing them of burdening and abusing public health services. 

Nkomo-Ralehoko said overcrowding is not an isolated issue but a challenge facing most of the provincial hospitals.

She briefed the media in Johannesburg after her department’s budget vote on Wednesday.

"We are trying to expand our facilities to increase infrastructure capacity. The minister has promised to give us an amount of money that we'll be able to buy some beds. This will help us to improve, because it's not fair for a pregnant woman to be sitting in a chair in a hospital."

The MEC said renovations are also underway at the Tembisa hospital in Ekurhuleni, after the facility was damaged by fire earlier this year.

At least one suspect has since been arrested.