Thabo Bodibe 
The Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital is introducing new interventions to reduce long waiting times for surgical procedures.  
The Gauteng Department of Health said the Soweto-based hospital has 11194 patients awaiting to undergo surgeries in various healthcare categories. 
These include 3394 adult cataract patients, 1304 paediatric surgery patients, and 622 orthopaedics patients who have been waiting for at least a year. 
About 1 017 patients have been waiting for a knee replacement for four years and five months.  
"Many of the surgical procedures were deferred owing to various causes. Among these is the COVID-19 outbreak, which led to the postponement of elective surgeries in the last two years. Various interventions are being used to reduce the backlogs." 
The new interventions include dedicated weekend surgeries, an increase in arthroplasty days to three days a week for hip replacement, and other joint surgeries.  
Further capacity will be available once an additional theatre at the Bheki Mlangeni District Hospital is functional. 
The department said the neurosurgery department is also providing outreach programs at Thelle Mogoerane Regional Hospital in Ekurhuleni and Leratong Hospital in West Rand District 
Further capacity will be availed once an additional theatre at the Bheki Mlangeni District Hospital is back online. 
The hospital continues to provide brachytherapy as part of efforts to reduce prostate cancer backlogs, introduced last year, and resumed therapy to decrease benign prostatic hyperplasia backlogs.  
The department added that the hospital was currently working around the clock to attend to as many cases as possible to significantly reduce the backlog.