For many months there have been rumblings involving the proposed closure of Valkenberg hospital in Cape Town.
In May 1997, Western Cape Department of Health head Dr Tom Sutcliffe said Valkenberg, like all psychiatric hospitals in the province, would have to shrink.
Only a core psychiatric service, to treat seriously mentally ill patients, and the maximum security forensic unit would continue to operate at Valkenberg hospital because of government budget cuts.
However, already the department was running on a deficit of between R400-million and R500-million a year, and in the last few months closure of the entire hospital was deemed necessary.
Out of all the hospitals earmarked for the chop – Stickland, Lentegeur, Alexandra, Valkenberg – it was Valkenberg, lying on valuable land at the Black-Liesbeek river confluence, that attracted developers.
Several organisations showed an interest in buying it. A cry went up, petitions were bandied around. Patients themselves began to agitate.
Consultant psychiatrists at Valkenberg, who seemed particularly slow on the draw, signed a letter with the ominous wording: ”We believe that the closure of any psychiatric hospital in the Western Cape, without first addressing the deficits in the clinics and the regional hospitals, will result in the inability of the public sector to provide the psychiatric services guaranteed in terms of the Constitution.”
Everyone connected with Valkenberg realises that rationalisation is needed, plus better and more efficient accommodation and services.
But most also know that closing Valkenberg for a fistful of cash will only exacerbate the crisis of treating mental illness in the Western Cape.
ENDS