No public hospital beds ...
And bodies left in wards overnight as Bay mortuaries overflow
At Dora Nginza Hospital in Port Elizabeth, bodies are left overnight in wards as the mortuary is too full and, across Nelson Mandela Bay, public hospital beds are at capacity.
This has emerged at a time when the metro’s dysfunctional hospitals have come under ever-increasing scrutiny.
While the Bay’s health-care system teeters on the edge — with just two ambulances and two buses available for Covid-19 patients — the metro’s district health manager says there is a glimmer of hope as clinics are operating far better than they were last month, taking some of the pressure off hospitals.
Although the health department has admitted that there are no beds available in public hospitals and a doctor has told of the horror of patients having to sleep in the same ward with bodies, district health manager Darlene de Vos said with clinics in the metro functioning better some pressure would be taken off the hospitals.
Over the past few weeks, disturbing stories about public health care in the province have played out in the media.
At Dora Nginza, expectant mothers were waiting for up to 16 days for C-sections and family members had to provide food as staff embarked on a go-slow.
Livingstone Hospital’s passages were strewn with rubbish, bloodied bedsheets were not cleaned and a report showed that screening protocols were not being adequately followed.
Last month, the Motherwell Community Health Centre’s doors were closed as staff protested after a colleague tested positive for Covid-19.
Staff protests also rocked the Uitenhage Provincial Hospital on numerous occasions, with the family of a Uitenhage man devastated last week when they found the wrong body had been released to their undertakers and they had buried a stranger.
De Vos said only one clinic — in Soweto-on-Sea — was closed yesterday.
“We have seen a huge improvement in clinics,” she said.
“There has been a huge improvement, which takes the burden off the hospitals.”
On Tuesday, the Rev Dr Elizabeth Mamisa Chabula-Nxiweni VWSA field hospital admitted its first patients, which also went a long way in alleviating the hospital-bed challenge in the Bay.
“We are preparing for this field hospital to be fully operational by August,” De Vos said.
She said 30 people had been admitted to the field hospital so far.
Phase one of the facility provides 1,400 beds and this will increase to 3,300 once phase three is completed, 700 short of the original plan for 4,000 beds.
The field hospital, named after health activist Dr Mamisa Chabula-Nxiweni, was the result of an R80m donation from the German government and
more than R20m donated by VWSA.
De Vos said 106 people would be employed on contract at the field hospital by August 1.
This would help when the Covid-19 peak — expected in September — was reached.
“We are very concerned about the peak but we should be ready when it comes,” she said.
As of Tuesday, the Eastern Cape had 40,401 confirmed cases of Covid-19, comprising 18.7% of all positive tests in SA, with 22,022 recoveries.
The province recorded 564 deaths.
Public hospitals have been bursting at the seams in recent weeks, battling a crisis of too many patients and too few staff — which threatened to collapse public health care in the city.
It has since emerged that bodies have been left in hospital beds overnight at Dora Nginza Hospital as the mortuary was full.
“The mortuary is a big issue. “When we have people dying, the bodies stay overnight in the unit [ward] as they can’t be moved to the mortuary,” a doctor, who did not want to be named, revealed.
He said bodies were left in the mortuaries for days at a time as undertakers refused to remove them until the day of the funeral.
As a result, patients had to sleep next to corpses in the hospital wards.
However, the general situation with regard to resources at the hospital had improved in the last few weeks as the clinics had reopened.
“This has taken a huge burden off the hospitals,” he said.
Eastern Cape health spokesperson Siyanda Manana confirmed that the public hospitals were full.
“We do emergency surgeries and not elective surgeries,” he said.
Manana said the city had two ambulances and two 22seat buses to cater for Covid-19 patients.
“The minibuses were added to assist,” he said.
At Uitenhage Provincial Hospital, only medical emergencies will be attended to, with anyone seeking treatment without a referral letter turned away, according to a notice sent out by the hospital’s new acting CEO, Dr Ajudua Emmanuel.
Emmanuel, the hospital’s fourth CEO in just three months, said patients should go to a clinic before trying the hospital.
Asked what had happened to the previous acting CEO, Dr Lulekwa Mayekiso, Manana said she had taken leave but was working closely with Emmanuel.
Eastern Cape Netcare general manager Andre Bothma said Greenacres in Port Elizabeth and Cuyler in Uitenhage had suspended elective surgery and non-urgent medical admissions until further notice.
However, “we will continue to provide medical care for patients with life- or limb-threatening injuries or conditions.”
He said there was limited space at Greenacres and Cuyler for both Covid-19 patients and those with other illnesses.
“The situation remains extremely fluid and we expect demand to escalate further.
“We are therefore, continuously, assessing the demand,” Bothma said.
The pandemic has catapulted the province’s health care crisis into the spotlight, coming under scrutiny by politicians, unions and the media.
A report by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases — published last month — has warned that the worst is still to come for the Eastern Cape.
It is projected that the Eastern Cape will have 441,000 cases by the middle of this month, of which 78,400 people will be symptomatic.
According to the report, there will be 1,080 deaths and more than 3,010 hospital beds will be needed for patients.
Of the 3,010 hospital admissions, 480 of the patients will require intensive care, it says.