Durban – The KwaZulu-Natal health MEC must make sure an agreement is signed to avoid closing Durban’s 103-year-old McCord Hospital, the Democratic Alliance said on Friday.

“The MEC must take control of the situation. He has already committed to taking over McCord and turning it into a state-run hospital,” DA spokesperson Makhosazana Mdlalose said in a statement.

Mdlalose urged MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo to push for signing an agreement between McCord Hospital management and the provincial health department without delay.

“If this transition is being managed as it should be, by both parties, then there shouldn’t be any issue and staff should certainly not be standing outside protesting,” she said.

On Thursday, staff mostly belonging to the National Education, Health, and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), protested outside the facility.

They carried banners that read “Yes to DOH [department of health]” and “No to Closure”.

The hospital was slated for closure earlier this year after the department opted not to renew its annual subsidy.

At the end of January, Dhlomo announced that the department had offered to take over the hospital and that the hospital’s board had accepted this.

On Thursday, the MEC’s spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi said negotiations had taken place.

There was an agreement in place “waiting to be signed to effect the take-over of McCord Hospital by the provincial government by September 2013”.

– SAPA