Health department must nip Covid-19 non-compliance in the bud

5 August 2020

The Democratic alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape has made an urgent call on Health MEC, MarupingLekwene, to do an urgent audit on Covid-19 compliance of all Northern Cape hospitals.

This comes after another health facility, the Connie Vorster Hospital in Hartswater, today shut its doors after staff embarked on a strike outside the facility (see pics here and here). It is believed that staff are unhappy because, despite two recent Covid-19 related deaths at the facility, including one of a staff member, the hospital has yet to be disinfected.

In addition to the matters relating to sanitizing of the facility, the DA has also learnt that Covid-19 patients are not necessarily being separated from general patients and have been made to share wards.

Also of concern, is the fact that the hospital is not ventilator-ready and three patients who tested Covid-19 positive, who were in a serious condition, apparently had to be transported to the Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe (RMS) Hospital in Kimberley.

Just last week, similar situations and concerns arose at the De Aar Hospital, and before that at the Prof ZK Mathews hospital in Barkley West. The above concerns demand urgent attention.

The DA fails to understand how, at this stage of the pandemic, basic protocols are still not in place at all health facilities across the province. Surely, by now, the process of deep cleansing should be standard practise? Also, it is unthinkable that given all the so-called focus on quarantine and isolation sites, that a hospital would deem it acceptable to make coronavirus patients share wards and facilities with regular patients. We can only wonder why hospital managers are not being held accountable?

At the same time, we are increasingly concerned by the lack of ventilating capacity in the province. As far as the DA is aware, RMS has only about five ventilators in operation in the Covid-19 ICU ward – if RMS Hospital has to take care of Covid-19 critical patients from across the province, there are going to be many avoidable deaths occurring. We know the province has procured a number of ventilators, but where are they and where are the specialised health professionals that are meant to utilise them?

The DA is starting to get fed up with the sluggish response by the provincial health department to manage the pandemic. MEC Lekwene has a lot of work to do in a short time, if he is going to prevent a Covid-19 bomb in the Northern Cape.

Issued byAndrew Louw,DA Northern Cape Provincial Leader, 5 August 2020