George Hospital ready for Covid cases
As at most healthcare facilities across the Western Cape that are preparing for an uptake in Covid-19 cases, the George Hospital is concentrating all its resources to essential and emergency services, and nonurgent surgeries have been postponed for the time being.
According to Nadia Ferreira, district spokesperson for the Western Cape Health Department, the hospital has two separate isolation wards for Covid-19 patients where they will be treated by staff assigned only to those wards. The total number of 266 beds in the hospital and 750 medical staff members is adequate capacity for the current need. No Covid-19 patients have to date been admitted.The number of Covid beds will be adjusted as needed. "Surgeries that need to be performed within three months will go ahead. Anything from cataract surgery to gallstone removal with health consequences to the patient will be done. All outpatient department visits have been rescheduled for a later date, except high-risk antenatal clinic visits, dialysis treatment and emergency cancer treatment," said Ferreira. A virus testing unit, established in record time in an existing building, is now the only point of entry at the hospital where all visitors are screened for Covid-19.
George Hospital is a level 2 or referral hospital for all health facilities in the Garden Route and Central Karoo district, which includes the district hospitals of Knysna, Mossel Bay, Riversdale, Ladismith and Oudtshoorn.
Level two hospitals typically provide specialist services like occupational therapy, oncology and chemotherapy, ophthalmology, orthopaedics and orthopaedic aftercare, and pacemaker testing.