Covid-19: Short straw for agency staff at Life St Dominic’s, complains nurse

Life St Dominic’s staff who have tested positive for Covid-19 are being cared for at three private isolation facilities in East London, but some nurses contracted to work at the hospital through a nursing agency believe they have to quarantine at home if they contract the virus.

One nurse contracted through an agency who tested positive said she had no choice but to quarantine in a flat she rented in East London’s CBD, but her claim has been refuted by the hospital's administration.

The nurse believes she contracted Covid-19 while working at the St Dominic’s casualty ward.

The distraught young  woman said the hospital was “not interested” in assisting non-permanent agency-appointed nurses with accommodation for quarantine as it did for permanent staffers.

DispatchLIVE has confirmed that St Dominic’s has three quarantine sites for employees — in Beacon Bay, Nahoon and Southernwood.

“I was tested on Monday and I managed to get my results the following day after I called the lab myself,” she said.

“Before then I called the office to inquire about my status but they just ignored me, saying they were busy, and that’s why I called the lab.”

The nurse said she was relying on a friend who was a doctor for medication, and some of her fellow nurses were supplying her with food and other basic necessities.

“The hospital management didn’t even call me though they had my results. It’s just been a painful week for me because I expected to get my results at work or to get a call from them just to encourage me at least.

’Or to ask me if I had a proper place to quarantine or what? But nothing so far,” she said.

Another nurse who is permanently employed at St Dominic’s said agency staff were not given any attention “on the basis that they belong to an agent”, she said.

“And if you speak to the media about such things, you are blocked from working at Life.”

Life Healthcare’s GM of emergency medicine Dr Charl van Loggerenberg refuted the nurse’s claims.

He said nurses who tested positive for Covid-19 — regardless of whether they were permanent or hired through an agency — were given the option to quarantine or self-isolate at accommodation provided by the hospital.

He said there was inadequate information to determine if the nurse’s infection was community-acquired or from exposure within the hospital.

“It is important to note that community transmission of the virus is a national challenge and one the facility is not immune to.

“Employees may be exposed to the virus within the community and not be aware that they are a carrier of the virus if no symptoms are displayed.

“In any event, Life Healthcare provides assistance to employees who have tested positive,” Van Loggerenberg said.

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