The Korsten Community Health Centre (CHC) in Gqeberha, once a fully operational 24-hour facility, now offers only limited healthcare services. It closes daily at 4pm and remains shut over weekends.
This comes despite a public commitment by the MEC for Health in 2024 that the centre would be fully restored and operational by November of that year. The plan included 24-hour service, seven days a week, with a full range of primary healthcare services. That promise has not been fulfilled.
The consequences of this failure are being felt just next door, at Livingstone Hospital’s Casualty Department, which is buckling under pressure due to critical staff shortages. Patients who would ordinarily have been seen at Korsten CHC are arriving at Livingstone instead, overwhelming its limited resources. Many are turned away without treatment, as the facility is only able to attend to those in immediate, life-threatening conditions.
This is a textbook example of poor planning and inefficient use of existing resources. While the Nelson Mandela Bay district is in need of a district hospital, the current proposal to convert Empilweni CHC into such a facility carries a massive cost. This is entirely unrealistic in a province where the Department of Health is financially crippled.
At the end of the 2024/2025 financial year, the department reported accruals totalling R6.96 billion. This represents nearly a quarter of the total health budget for the current year. In this context, prioritising costly infrastructure conversions over the restoration of existing facilities is fiscally irresponsible.
I have written to the Head of Department, Dr Rolene Wagner, urging her to act on the department’s prior commitment and restore the Korsten CHC to full operational status as a 24-hour facility. I will further request a clear and time-bound implementation plan to give effect to this commitment.
Download letter
The community has already expressed its outrage at the decline of services at Korsten CHC. Continued failure to act may lead to consequences that the department is neither prepared for nor able to afford.
Reactivating Korsten CHC would ease the burden on Livingstone Hospital’s emergency staff, improve service delivery across both facilities, and restore dignity to thousands of residents. There is no dignity in being denied access to basic healthcare. Our citizens deserve better.