Ten patients die at Fort Beaufort psychiatric hospital

Ten patients at  Tower Psychiatric Hospital in Fort Beaufort have died, though there is no consensus over whether Covid-19 accounted for all the fatalities.

Nurses who attended to the patients contend all showed signs of the virus, but the health department says only two were found to have died of Covid-19.

The Tower patients died at different hospitals, according to the department.

One of the four nurses who spoke to DispatchLIVE on condition of anonymity said the hospital had been losing a patient a week since April.

“Why would we lie about this? These patients are dying like there’s an outbreak here.

“Four patients have died at the hospital this month alone,” the nurse said.

Health department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said no deaths were reported in April, but in May and June several Tower patients had died at different hospitals.

“Tower hospital had no deaths reported in April,” he said.

“In May there were three deaths. Two died of natural causes and one death was Covid-19 related.

“Three transfers died in other hospitals,” he said.

“In June, one died of natural causes and one death was Covid-19 related. There [were] two transfers who died at CMH [Cecilia Makiwane Hospital].”

Last week, a group  was discharged by the hospital, but the nurse said they were concerned about the remaining patients.

“There’s panic,” the nurse said.

“It is not normal to lose patients like this. We are not a medical or a general hospital but a psychiatric hospital.

“These patients have died and families are asking questions about how they died, yet our management is keeping quiet.

“Instead, they discharged some of them back to their families without testing them last week.”

Staff alleged they were being blamed by management for being carriers of the virus.

Another nurse told DispatchLIVE: “All those who died were in one unit and are grown-up people.

“Some had underlying sicknesses. Now, the management are blaming us, saying we have carried this virus to these patients.

“If that’s the case the hospital must test all of us today.”

A third nurse said they had not been given  thermometers for testing purposes.

“For a big hospital like this, we have one working machine for the entire staff.

“Patients are not being tested at all. Those patients cannot say they are sick and we have to make sure that we are noticing their temperatures and without proper check-ups ...

“We now have eight staff who have tested positive.”

Kupelo confirmed the positive cases.

“Eight staff members tested positive and are in quarantine.

“In total, we have 31 staff members under investigation who have been sent to quarantine.

“The institution was given two thermometers and one was reported missing, and today they were supplied with an additional one.”

Another nurse said the hospital was not prepared for Covid-19.

“There is no disaster committee working properly to deal with Covid-19 cases. As a result, staff and patients are testing positive. Staff are forced to deal with Covid-19 patients and there’s no-one to test us.”

The department said  a  nurses’ forum meeting was held in May “to give nurses an update of Tower and preparation and how to deal with Covid-19”.

Kupelo said the department had limited gatherings and meetings due to Covid-19 regulations.

“Tower hospital  has an occupational health and safety committee, which also serves as disaster safety committee.”

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