PUBLIC hospitals inspire little confidence in South Africans - if the numbers of infant deaths are anything to go by.

A shocking 8,001 babies died in hospitals during the first five months of the year, Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi revealed yesterday.

HIV infection was blamed for the death of the babies who did not live to see their first birthdays. The causes of death included pneumonia, diarrhoea, prematurity and malnutrition.

The Gauteng department of health ruled out negligence as the cause of death of six premature babies at Johannesburg's Charlotte Maxeke Hospital this year.

The infants died in May after they were infected with a virulent strain of the novovirus, which is spread by contaminated hands, food and water. Infection could lead to vomiting and diarrhoea.

More babies died but at a different hospital that week in May, raising questions about the state of neonatal wards in the province.

Eleven babies died on the same day - May 11 - at Natalspruit Hospital in Ekurhuleni.

Mahlangu said: "I have been told by the hospital that the deaths were unavoidable. Four of the babies were macerated stillbirths, three were fresh stillbirths. The other four died after birth." Mahlangu said.

The hospital was also criticised because it took a week to report the infants' deaths to the department.

By June 17 doctors had quit at Leratong Hospital on the West Rand, citing "unbearable working conditions". The hospital was earmarked to provide assistance for the Fifa Soccer World Cup.

"Leratong is a mess. There are no senior doctors. The hospital is run by student doctors who also leave once they finish their community service.

"The department of health should be asking itself why student doctors leave after completing their in-service training if there is nothing wrong at the hospital," said a doctor who declined to be named.

Public hospitals were plunged into chaos when staff went on a three-week strike in August.

Private hospitals took in public hospital patients - including 53 premature babies born at the Natalspruit Hospital.

Garden City Clinic in Mayfair, Johannesburg, took up 90 babies - born prematurely and in ventilators - from Chris Hani-Baragwanath, Sebokeng and Natalspruit hospitals.

The babies were transferred back to their original hospitals when they were stronger and the strike had been suspended.

South African National Defence Force soldiers were deployed to various hospitals in the country to provide medical assistance. Ordinary members of the public, volunteer organisations and retired professionals also offered their services to hospitals affected by the strike.

And the deadline for the completion of Jabulani Hospital in Soweto was again shifted to 2012, reportedly because of the department's "budgetary constraints".

The original deadline was 2008 at a construction cost of R334 million.

By March R348 million had been spent on the project. By 2012 this will have risen to R880 million.

DA Gauteng health spokesperson Jack Bloom said: "It's disappointing that tender bungles and poor planning have delayed the opening of this hospital and more than doubled its cost."

Nurses at Limpopo's Thabazimbi Hospital in March claimed that at least 36 patients had died because of a shortage of doctors.

The hospital was left with three doctors after some quit. This came after the nurses went on strike demanding the restructuring of their posts.

More than 30 psychiatric patients at Tshilidzini Hospital outside Thohoyandou were moved after a fire razed their ward.

The fire was allegedly caused by a burning cigarette that was dropped by a visitor.

Lebelo said two male patients were in critical condition and were, with the rest of the patients, transferred to Siloam, Hayane and Donald Fraser hospitals in the Vhembe region.

In November a Limpopo woman sued Tshilidzini Hospital and the provincial department of health for R4 million after a "botched" stomach operation.