Hospital struggling to handle pandemic

IT HAS been three months since we became aware of the Covid-19 pandemic and government declared that they were putting plans in place to ensure the country was in the best position possible to manage the peak.

Sadly, this is not the case. There is plenty of talk from the top but very little appears to be happening on the ground.

As of this week, this hospital (Mahatma Gandhi) still did not have a proper plan in place. The ward where possible positive patients are being kept had more patients than it could accommodate.

There is a major shortage of staff. No one from national or provincial level has visited this hospital.

It seems that they are given an instruction and they merely have to follow.

The management at this hospital seem to be overwhelmed.

The hospital has had about six chief executives in the last 8-10 years. Presently, the acting chief executive was only employed a year ago as a nursing manager. He has accepted a post elsewhere and spends most of his time out of the hospital.

There appears to be very little support for the doctors and nursing staff. The unions seem helpless as they are only willing to fight petty issues that they know they can win.

Just like Albert Luthuli Hospital, when a nurse tests positive others end up going for tests, which depletes the ward. Where is the cover for this? Why aren’t the unions tackling this issue?

Why waste R120million on a handful of foreign doctors that speak poor English and do not understand our country and its people?

They keep saying that if doctors and staff follow proper protocols, there is minimal chance of crossinfection. The quality of the personal protective equipment currently being supplied is sub-standard and not up to WHO requirements.

This is really a sad indictment, and possibly the situation at every hospital. | ANONYMOUS