The Gauteng department of health has dismissed accusations by the DA concerning poor cardiac surgery outcomes at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, describing the comments as “misleading and unverified”.
DA Gauteng health spokesperson Jack Bloom said the heart surgery mortality rate at Charlotte Maxeke was approximately 20%. “Overseas, mortality rates exceeding 2–3% would immediately trigger a formal inquiry," he told a news conference on Tuesday.
“There has also been an unexplained and dramatic reduction in the number of heart operations performed.
“The department previously conducted several hundred heart surgeries annually, but this figure has now dropped to about 200 a year. This decline allows officials to claim fewer deaths, while the reality is that many critically ill patients are not receiving life-saving surgery at all,” he said.
“Other issues include poor infrastructure for heart patients at the hospital, and the inability to train registrars, as so few operations are being done.”
The department cited an “overall 72.5% decrease in the mortality rate between 2023 and 2025”. The available data, it said, “does not indicate an abnormal or rising mortality trend”.
“As a teaching hospital, the hospital continues to prioritise patient safety while providing specialised and super-specialised care. Consequently, clinical outcomes in cardio-thoracic surgery, including mortality rates, are evaluated using internationally accepted methods that consider patient complexity, comorbidities and procedural risk,” the department said.
“Any interpretation of data that omits these factors is fundamentally flawed and risks misleading the public. The claim of an approximate 20% mortality rate is not backed up by verified risk-adjusted clinical data and should not be viewed in isolation.”
There was “no evidence of systemic failure or elevated risk that would necessitate a formal commission of inquiry”, the department added.
It also rejected allegations of a lack of transparency. “Clinical performance at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital is subject to ongoing review through established governance, audit and oversight processes created to ensure accountability and patient safety,” it said.
At the same time, the department acknowledged operational challenges within the unit, including staff shortages and delays in procedures.
It noted “significant delays in surgical interventions and a substantial reduction in training and skills development opportunities” due to vacant posts.
According to figures provided, 31 patients are currently awaiting bypass surgery with a waiting period of about 16 weeks, while 29 patients are awaiting valve-replacement procedures with a 14-week wait.
The department said efforts were under way to fill vacancies, though in some cases no applications had been received.
It also stressed that patient safety remained a priority, stating there were “no recorded cases of patients being harmed or dying in the ICU as a result of registrars being left unsupervised at night”.
“Human resource limitations have affected service delivery. Consequently, surgical volumes are adjusted to prevent staff fatigue and reduce risks to patient safety and clinical outcomes. Nonetheless, staffing issues do not suggest systemic failure, as they are managed within standard professional procedures,” the department said.
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