Scottish Hospital Sets Up Covid-19 Unit
As a way of fighting COVID-19 and assisting those who are in need of hospitalisation, Scottish Livingstone Hospital has taken a decision to scale down its services.
The hospital, which is located in Molepolole, plans to set up another unit to assist coronavirus patients who have underlying conditions and critical due to the illness.
Hospitals across the country are currently experiencing shortages of beds and COVID-19 patients have been left on their own or their care delegated to families. Lately, Scottish hospital has been experiencing an increase in COVID-19 positive clients who need to be admitted.
“We have one unit which has 22 beds and already 17 patients are on isolation. Therefore, we had to come up with strategies to create another unit,” the hospital public relations officer, Nthabiseng Dikgang said in an interview on Wednesday.
“This will help to address the issue of overflow if it could arise. Again, we want to reduce the number of deaths. We have realised that sometimes lives could be saved if we are able to admit some COVID-19 patients and monitor them closely,” she said.
Dikgang said the new unit is still in a preparatory stage and it is a ward of 34 beds.
“But at the moment we are closing all the gaps as it was not designed for highly infectious diseases to get it on the proper standards.”
She said all COVID-19 patients who need admission are usually in need of high care.
“They are normally on oxygen machines. Now the challenge is that our staff end up testing positive in the process,” she further revealed.
On August 10, 2021, the hospital issued a press statement revealing that the new development to scale down the services it provides was a way of preparing for the rise in numbers of positive cases inclusive of those in need of hospital care.
Some of the measures that the hospital put in place are that the general outpatient will be closed and the doctors’ consultations will be extended to the local clinics. Only specialist services will continue at the hospital on doctors’ appointment, sexual reproductive health services like child welfare, antenatal care, postnatal care and family planning will be affected by the closing.
The only services that will remain will be the referred screening cases for cancer of the cervix, high-risk clinic services and paediatric clinic services. Also, elective operations will be suspended, except for cancer patients.