Download PDFCommunities around Tarkastad, a small town on the outskirts of Queenstown, in the Eastern Cape, gathered around the Town Hall on 6 March 2025. This followed stories that the Department of Health in the Chris Hani District plans to re-purpose the Martjie Venter Hospital and turn it into a 24-hour Community Health Centre facility. The community members held their own meeting after the Department of Health’s meeting with the hospital staff the previous day. The community found out about these allegations through media reports, and after a spreadsheet with the information was leaked from the Department.
According to sources, the Martjie Venter Hospital was built and donated to the Tarkastad community by the Venter family. It is the only facility in the area, with the nearest hospital, the Frontier Hospital in Queenstown, 63 KM away from Tarkastad. The Martjie Venter Hospital is also located near the R61 National Road that connects the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, which community members believe to to be a high accident zone. The facility is usually the first to respond in case of an accident. Furthermore, the Martjie Venter Hospital has four wards dependent on the Frontier Lifeline Hospital, and which also services nine clinics scattered throughout the small town.
The hospital was gazetted to hold 20 beds. But due to the high number of surrounding villages and farms, the hospital services, the beds were increased to 32. This was done to improve the number of patients the hospital can service at any given time. This is one of the reasons why the repurposing of facility is under discussion.
According to the Department of Health, the Martjie Venter Hospital was registered as a district hospital, but due to the number of beds being less than 50, the hospital falls below the required criteria of being a district hospital. Another reason for repurposing the facility is that the number of patients admitted falls below the required numbers for a hospital. According to the Department, doctors are supposed to see up to 35 patients and nurses must see 25 patients, and this facility allegedly to receives only around 15 admissions per month.
The repurposing of the Martjie Venter Hospital will have a significant impact on the community of Tarkastad. Many residents in the affected area are already unemployed and will not be able to afford the transportation to take sick people to the nearest hospital in Queenstown. Additionally, the downgrading of this facility will mean that the vital services that patients can receive in a hospital will be removed, including the ambulance service the community currently has, thanks to the presence of the Martjie Venter Hospital. Also, downgrading this facility into a clinic appears to be an unreasonable plan as the hospital is already based next to a clinic that currently services the community.
So far, the Department of Health has only consulted and held a meeting with all the staff and their respective unions, but has yet to address and avail themselves to meeting with other stakeholders, namely the community, the elderly, the White Door organisation, and the disabled. Though the repurposing of the Martjie Venter Hospital is said to only be in talks, the community wants clarity on the matter because they hear about it in the news and on media outlets.
Many residents said it would be best for the Department of Health to consider upgrading the hospital, fix its infrastructure and administration services, and ensure that all services are made available instead of downgrading the hospital into a clinic that will have limited services.
