Mediclinic Morningside staff in Sandton are demanding transparency from their employers after about 12 employees, including seven health-care workers, tested positive for Covid-19. This comes a week after Netcare St Augustine’s Hospital in Durban was shut down because 66 people, including staff and patients, tested positive for Covid-19 and five people died. The Mediclinic cases come as South Africa on Monday confirmed 2 272 cases and 27 deaths from the respiratory disease. Gauteng, as the epicentre of South Africa’s outbreak, has 865 cases, followed by the Western Cape with 587.
A staff member at the hospital, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Star a theatre nurse allegedly had coronavirus symptoms after a caesarean section on a patient last week. After the C-section the patient got transferred to the post-natal unit but one nurse presented with symptoms and got sick, and that’s when they decided to test everybody. When they tested the mother and the baby, they found both tested positive,” she said.
Dr Stefan Smuts, chief clinical officer of Mediclinic Southern Africa, confirmed that after a staff member tested positive for the virus more than 100 potential contacts were tested, with the majority showing negative results. Twelve staff members have tested positive, seven are health-care workers. The staff members are all in isolation and will remain so until they have fully recovered,” Smuts said, adding tall contacts were being monitored and isolation protocols applied.
The staff member said due to the situation at St Augustine’s Hospital, her colleagues were concerned as the hospital management allegedly had not been transparent with the employees about how many staff contracted the virus.
KwaZulu-Natal health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu said on Wednesday the department was informed that the private medical facility did not take the necessary safety and preventative measures. Due to the allegations, the Environmental and Occupational Health Services was called for in-depth investigations to determine what led to this facility having such a high number of infections and deaths.
“We need to take this seriously because we don’t want to find ourselves in a situation like in Italy and they must just disclose (it), and tell us what is happening. If they want us to comply and help, they need to help us as well, and tell us what’s happening,” the employee said.
Another employee at the hospital, who tested negative for the virus, said the hospital management said nothing about the confirmed cases last week but added that she felt reassured that the hospital was doing something about the situation because employees were being tested.
The employee said the hospital was experiencing a shortage of some personal protective equipment (PPE), except for gloves and masks. We don’t have many resources in the country when it comes to health and as much as our communities are not taking this seriously, as health-care workers we are concerned,” she said.
Smuts said Mediclinic had internal and external processes guiding the private hospital’s response to the confirmed cases. “In accordance with our stringent protocols, Mediclinic immediately reviewed the situation to identify as a matter of urgency all staff, doctors, and patients potentially exposed. The National Department of Health also has firm processes in place governing contact tracing of those exposed to a positive individual,” he said.
Meanwhile, police spokesperson Captain Kay Makhubela confirmed the Douglasdale police station was closed and reopened over the weekend after a police officer had tested positive. The facility reopened after it was decontaminated and sterilised.
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Source: IOL
