Hospitals in Gauteng will undergo major refurbishment as part of provincial government's effort to deal with infrastructure backlogs facing health facilities.

This was announced by Gauteng infrastructure MEC Tasneem Motara on Tuesday in Johannesburg. Motara, who reached his first 100 days in office this week, said R2bn had been set aside to refurbish 32 hospitals in Gauteng in the current financial year.

Motara said the refurbishment would differ from one hospital to another and was in response to assessment which showed serious infrastructure challenges in health facilities.

"It is not a one size fits all. Each hospital has different needs. Hospitals differ due to their age and how they have been maintained," said Motara.

She was briefing the media on the state occupational health and safety of buildings which house provincial government. Gauteng provincial government owns 18 buildings in the Johannesburg inner city but is only using nine of them as the rest are not safe to occupy.

Safety of the buildings came under the spotlight during a fire that razed Bank of Lisbon building in September last year, leading to three firefighters dying in the process.The building in the Johannesburg city centre had housed government employees from different departments.

In March this year, the Gauteng government announced plans to demolish the buildings, and that a contractor for the job had already been appointed.