200 Eastern Cape health workers positive for Covid-19

Close to 200 healthcare workers in the Eastern Cape, from the public and private sectors, have tested positive for the coronavirus, with Nelson Mandela Bay Metro accounting for the bulk of infections.

This is according to the provincial health department's performance report tabled to the provincial command council on Monday.

Nelson Mandela Bay has 71 Covid-positive healthcare workers and Buffalo City Metro 63.

OR Tambo district has 28 infected healthcare workers, Amathole 14 and Chris Hani eight. Sarah Baartman has three such infections and Alfred Nzo and Joe Gqabi two each.

According to Western Cape health department spokesperson Nomawethu Sbukwana, they have 1,496 healthcare workers with Covid-19.

Among the private hospitals, Life St Dominic's in East London has taken centre stage.

It is rumoured that a number of staffers have tested positive for Covid-19 and service is suffering as a result.

A nurse who asked not to be named fearing victimisation told DispatchLIVE several units in the hospital were using “incorrect” personal protective equipment (PPE), and that their intensive care unit, where six healthcare workers had tested positive for Covid-19, was still operating and was yet to be decontaminated as required by law.

“The unit remains to operate as per normal whereas they are meant to close it down and fumigate,” said the nurse.

“Several units are operating using incorrect PPE as it is said that there is a shortage. Instead of using cover-up disposable gowns we are expected to use plastic aprons only or to reuse resterilised gowns,” she said.

The nurse said Covid-positive staff members were using their own medical aids to pay for treatment.

“This [Covid-19] is an injury on duty, therefore it should be treated as such, meaning the hospital should account for all treatment, but they are not taking any responsibility.”

The exposed staff are not receiving a “danger allowance” and they have been warned to keep quiet about these concerns, said the nurse.

“We are scattered in different locations and [management] asked us not to talk about this matter to anyone, especially the media.

“Our infection prevention specialist, whose main concern is saving PPE and saving costs, said the staff are not a concern, our concern is the patients.

“And some staff members who tested positive remained in their communities for several days until accommodation for isolation was provided.” 

A Covid-19 patient at Life Beacon Bay, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he had the worst experience at St Dominic's on Saturday when healthcare workers blatantly ignored him.

“I think we arrived at St Dominic's at about 7am and we waited until 3pm. We stayed outside all that time,” he said.

“We waited for an hour at St Dominic's before the paramedics decided to take me to Life East London Private Hospital, but there we also didn't receive the welcome we were hoping for.

“So they took me to Life Beacon Bay, and here I waited four hours to get a swab test. Then after that I had to wait another four hours to get a bed allocated to me.

“I was in pain all that time, and mind you I have Covid-19,” said the patient.

A paramedic who wanted to remain anonymous said on Saturday he waited close to eight hours outside St Dominic's to drop off a sick patient.

“Everyone [in ambulances] is struggling, with patients being forced to wait outside and not being seen by a doctor,” she said.

“It's been about two weeks now since this started happening. Sometimes people have to wait for three to eight hours.

“We've waited seven to eight hours outside before they even acknowledge or see the patient, and it's generally suspected coronavirus patients."

She said her company had raised this with the hospital's management, "but no one really cares there”.

“They aren't really interested. You're basically stuck with a patient, and it's affecting business because you are with one patient for several hours and other calls are coming in.”

On Monday an ambulance transporting a Covid-19 patient waited in the parking lot for hours, she said.

“While I was there waiting with an eye patient, a patient in another ambulance just climbed out the vehicle and she just chilled outside. Anyone could have walked past her at that point, she said.

“And the biggest problem is St Dominic's, not necessarily Beacon Bay.”

Another disgruntled paramedic who works for a separate company said “you are lucky if you are not there for four to six hours”.

“The nurses there just do nothing and it's not a government problem — it's that hospital that's problematic. We can't attend to other calls because we get stuck there,” he said.

Provincial health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said health MEC Sindiswa Gomba was planning to hold an urgent meeting with the private healthcare sector to discuss the circumstances that have led to the high number of infections in private hospitals.

The general manager of emergency medicine at Life Healthcare, Dr Charl van Loggerenberg, confirmed that healthcare workers at the hospital had tested positive for Covid-19 but denied all other allegations.

He said the ICU unit at St Dominic’s was made up of isolation cubicles and when a patient was moved out of one “the cubicle is deep cleaned and fogged in preparation for the next patient”.

“Strict protocols regarding infection prevention are in place at all Life Healthcare hospitals and aligned to the NICD (National Institute of Communicable Diseases) and department of health requirements,” he said.

Van Loggerenberg said all employees were provided with “appropriate PPE”.

“We acknowledge and appreciate that our nurses and other healthcare personnel continue to provide, under very stressful circumstances, a service to the community and those who are ill.

“The safety of our healthcare workers, staff and patients therefore continues to be a top priority.”

He said the re-use of gowns and certain types of masks was an accepted practice and was being done in line with international infection prevention guidance in situations of shortage.

Van Loggerenberg said all their hospitals had a Covid-19 Doctor Committee that collaborated with hospital management in making infection control and clinical decisions.

“All permanent employees of Life Healthcare are members of a medical aid with Life Healthcare subsidising their monthly instalment. This is to safeguard employees during a time when they require medical attention.

“If the cost is not covered by the medical aid, the hospital covers the cost of the test,” he said.

Van Loggerenberg said he was seeing a “steady increase” in the number of Covid-19 cases.

“This has inevitably created some extended waiting periods for patients to be attended to in the hospitals.

“This is actively managed by the emergency unit and patients are attended to in terms of a triage system and internationally accredited system utilised to manage the flow of patients through the emergency unit based on their medical condition.”

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