Gauteng is finalising measures to relieve a skills shortage causing closures at trauma units in public hospitals, the provincial health department said on Tuesday. Spokesperson, Zanele Mngadi, said the department was ‘unable to communicate specifics’ of the plan to address the problem. "We will communicate at a later stage," she said.

Mngadi was responding to queries about a report in The Star newspaper on Monday, which said that the Johannesburg and Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospitals' trauma units were battling a skills shortage, which forced them to close their critical wards for hours at a time on ‘most weekends’.

The report referred to ‘ambulance diversions’ where ambulances are alerted by the hospital when they have reached their capacity in terms of space and staff. The ambulances are then requested to make use of an alternative trauma unit.

Johannesburg Hospital chief executive, Sagie Pillay, reiterated that ambulance diversions were an international phenomenon. "It is how trauma units function all over the world," he said. People who came to the hospital on their own were not turned away, even at such times when the hospital had reached capacity, he said.

Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital spokeswoman, Hester van den Heever, told Sapa that the diversions usually last around three to four hours until the hospital has the capacity to receive patients again.