Roof repairs at Mediclinic Stellenbosch will start soon after a section of the hospital was damaged during recent gale-force winds. This is according to Ben Pretorius, director of Stabilid Cape Construction, and the contractor overseeing the repairs.
Repairs to the roof will start on Saturday, 13 April, said Pretorius.
The roof was damaged by gale-force winds on the weekend of 6 and 7 April.
“The tiles have been ordered, but they obviously aren’t off-the-shelf items,” Pretorius said. “It will be delivered on Friday [12 April] and repairs will commence over the weekend.”
Wind damage to Stellenbosch Mediclinic over the weekend of 6 and 7 April was contained to infrastructure, including damage to its roof, according to Dr Gerrit de Villiers, chief operating officer of Mediclinic South Africa. PHOTO: Eugene Marais
According to Pretorius, the extreme weather conditions were to blame for the incident.
“The wind [gust] speed in the area was 300km/h, so that is basically what happened,” Pretorius said. “If a 300km/h wind comes and lifts that first roof tile, then the rest gets lifted with it.”
These wind gust speeds were confirmed by Windfinder, an online weather service that provides global forecasts for wind, weather, tides and waves.
Damage limited to infrastructure
According to Dr Gerrit de Villiers, chief operating officer of Mediclinic South Africa, the damage affected the surgical, paediatric and the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) wards of the hospital.
“[The damage] was limited to infrastructure, including damage to windows, solar panels and uprooted trees,” De Villiers said in email correspondence with SMF News. He added that there was no vehicle damage reported from around the hospital.
Ben Pretorius, director of Stabilid Cape Construction, is overseeing the reconstruction of the Stellenbosch Mediclinic’s roof. This comes after severe damage was caused to the roof by 300 km/h winds, he said. PHOTO: Eugene Marais
De Villiers confirmed that no patients, visitors or members of the public were harmed during the incident.
“We would like to reassure our community that our patients and staff were safe during the incident,” De Villiers said. “Three neonatal patients were transferred to an alternative Mediclinic hospital to ensure uninterrupted care.”
De Villiers said that the Mediclinic infrastructure and technical team were sent to the site shortly after the incident occurred.
According to Pretorius, the team tried to prevent further damage to the building by covering the gaping hole as best they could on Sunday.
“We tried to cover [the hole in the roof] by using the tiles that had been blown off and fixing it to the roof with screws,” Pretorius said. “We also switched off and removed the machines from the wards in case it started to rain later. And on the inside we constructed dams so that we could channel any rainwater towards the door on the east side of the ward.”
According to De Villiers, consulting rooms of supporting doctors remain open for consultations.
The strong winds experienced on the weekend of 6 and 7 April caused significant damage on the Stellenbosch Mediclinic premises. “[…] Our patients and staff were safe during the incident,” said Dr Gerrit de Villiers, chief operating officer of Mediclinic South Africa. PHOTO: Eugene Marais