Cape Town – The Gauteng Department of Health (GDOH) has dismissed reports of chaos during a planned temporary power supply shutdown at Pretoria’s Steve Biko Academic Hospital over the weekend.
Daily Maverick reported that the electricity maintenance forced the evacuation of two critical service floors, disrupting emergency, intensive care, and high-care units, as well as the National Health Laboratory Service.
According to the publication, about 135 beds were unavailable, the casualty department had to be moved to a makeshift ward, and CT scans were suspended.
“What it meant was that 135 beds were no longer available over the weekend. The casualty department became a makeshift unit inside one ward on another floor. There were no patients apart from a few walk-ins. No CT scanning could be done either. Staff said they had no idea about the shutdown and why they had been moved,” the report quoted a hospital insider as saying.
Staff members also claimed they were given little notice about the shutdown or relocation, which left emergency services scrambling to transfer critically ill patients to nearby hospitals.
However, in a statement, the department insisted that patient safety was never compromised. It said the shutdown was part of scheduled maintenance work at the hospital’s emergency units and that all necessary precautions had been taken to ensure continuity of care.
MEDIA STATEMENT || PATIENT SAFETY NOT COMPROMISED DURING THE PLANNED TEMPORARY POWER SUPPLY SHUTDOWN AT STEVE BIKO ACADEMIC HOSPITAL pic.twitter.com/xeE0xEzukh
— Gauteng Health (@GautengHealth) October 2, 2025
“Contrary to the claims made in the recent article published by the Daily Maverick that there was chaos during this period, we wish to clarify that this was a planned maintenance and the assertions made in the article are untrue.
“Prior to the shutdown, there were multiple meetings held with the staff physically and virtually. Information about planned maintenance was also shared in various internal platforms,” said GDOH.
The department confirmed the successful power supply changeover conducted over the past weekend, and upgrading an outdated electrical system while maintaining service continuity during power supply interruptions.
The hospital continued to function with minimal disruptions, with Emergency Units temporarily relocated to Level 3 to accommodate walk-in patients who could not be diverted elsewhere.
GDOH maintains that they remain committed to ensuring patient safety and continuity of the delivery of quality healthcare services across all health facilities even during the maintenance work that are normally performed.
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Compiled by Anda Tolibadi
