JOHANNESBURG – Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital management on Wednesday said reports of a huge patient backlog are true, but those numbers will drop substantially in the next few months.

The hospital’s surgery backlog was highlighted on Wednesday after Gauteng Health MEC Hope Papo revealed that almost four thousand patients are part of the surgery backlog.

Hospital CEO Johanna More said the only real backlog is the urology department which still has to treat 2,000 patients.

“I can tell you that between January and July 2012, we’ve already covered 19,620 operating cases.”

The province’s hospital has made news in recent months for broken equipment, non-payment to service providers and shortages of medication.

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