By OBAKENG MAJE
North West MEC for Health, Madoda Sambatha said they will revamp the Vryburg old hospital and turned it into a quarantine site. Sambatha visited the Taung District Hospital and Joe Morolong Hospital in Vryburg on Thursday to monitor compliance at those healthcare facilities.
“This was an internal visit where I checked how compliant we are as the department. It is always imperative to ensure that there is compliance at our healthcare facilities. So, I am grateful even though I have realised that not everyone is compliant from where I have gone.
“There are internal challenges to some, but there is an element of a good working relationship between employees, managers, and unions. The general challenge is the increasing number of COVID-19 infections or transmission towards our employees. When the number increases, it creates a pressure of availability of staff,” he said.
Sambatha further said it is startling to see the number of infected staff members exceeding the number of patients who tested positive for COVID-19. He outlines that it is clear that there is a sign of laxity among healthcare workers.
“We have an element where staff members testing positive, but their contact person/s are not patients. This means that these people get exposed to the coronavirus outside their workplace. We need to run a very tight internal awareness campaign to educate or caution them about the risks.
“Our employees need to know that it is not only at the workplace where they can get exposed to the virus. The majority of people have that tendency of organising and attending parties. They need to know that they will bring the virus to the health facilities,” said Sambatha.
He also added that the department has experienced a challenge concerning the Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs). Sambatha said there is a delay of PPEs at some healthcare facilities.
“We are working around the clock to ensure that we are well-prepared as the country is heading to the peak of the virus. At the end of May 2020, we had less than 1000 reported COVID-19 cases. However, things took a sharp turn and we experienced a bulk of new cases since 5 June 2020.
“Currently, the province is above 11 000 cases. Our planning must never be relied on what we are seeing now, but we need to plan for the worst. If that period of surge arrives, it must find us ready. If you read into our numbers, there is very minimal admission to our facilities,” he said.
Sambatha said most deaths in the province were people with comorbidities. North West has 11 891 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 2694 recoveries, and 48 deaths thus far.
“Our people continue to be ignorant and we have realised that 99.9% of deaths are people with comorbidities. So, we urge them to stay away from any system that might jeopardise their health. It is important for people to stay home, practice social distancing, wash their hands and sanitize at all times.
“We planning to have around 2000 COVID-19 dedicated beds in various health facilities and we are working towards revamping the old Vryburg hospital to be used as an isolation facility in the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati,” said Sambatha.
He also encouraged a good working relationship between the healthcare facilities management and the public. This comes after more healthcare facilities being shut down due to positive reported cases among staff members. He said the management need to provide alternative mobile clinics to avoid lack of service delivery.
The Guardian 