Western Cape may not need private hospital beds for Covid-19 state patients

The Western Cape health department may be spared the cost of referring state patients to private hospitals if the region’s apparent decline in coronavirus infections continues, it emerged on Thursday.

After an initially rapid rise in Covid-19 cases, Cape Town is now seeing hospital admissions and deaths stabilising and the first signs of a possible decline, said Western Cape head of health Keith Cloete. His observations echo those of medical scheme administrator Discovery Health, which last week said it saw indications that the province’s epidemic may have reached its peak.

A similar trend is also seen in the weekly death reports from the Medical Research Council (MRC), said Cloete. The MRC’s latest weekly death report shows fatalities from natural causes — including Covid-19 — have steadily declined in the Western Cape over the past month. Natural deaths are those caused by diseases or conditions such as cancer.

The province has so far referred four patients to private hospitals, and this has been done to test its systems, not because it has run out of beds, said Cloete. All the requisite contracts are, however, in place should private hospital beds be required, he said.

“We are ready to activate these agreements should our service capacity be exceeded,” he said.

If pressure continues to ease on Western Cape hospitals, the provincial health department plans to resume elective surgery in August, he said. The Western Cape suspended non-urgent elective surgery in March to free up hospital beds for Covid-19 patients and reduce the risk of transmission within facilities.

 “Non-Covid services will be scaled up from August 1 in a balanced way so that we deal with all the health-care needs of the population of the Western Cape,” said Cloete.

Cloete said total hospital admissions had stabilised in the past 10 days, across both the public and private sector. Covid-19 admissions had reached a daily peak of 1,900 patients, and now stood at 1,600-1,700. The daily care bed occupancy rate had previously reached a maximum of 320 patients, and now hovered at 270-280 patients.

The field hospitals in Khayelitsha and at Cape Town International Convention Centre had played a big role in alleviating pressure on the city’s hospitals, said Cloete.

The 68-bed Thusong Centre in Khayelitsha had so far admitted 198 patients and discharged 138, while the 850-bed Hospital of Hope at the convention centre had admitted 1,069 patients and discharged 751.

Cloete said there had been fewer infections among health-care workers than the province had expected. It had planned for up to 20% of its staff complement being on leave due to Covid-19 at any time, but about 8.5% of its workforce had done so.

Western Cape premier Alan Winde, who was diagnosed with Covid-19 last week, said it was too soon to say the worst was over. “We are still in the midst of a serious health pandemic. If anything, we must be even more vigilant,” he said.