Durban - IT’S alleged that Clairwood Hospital has Covid-19 positive health-care workers who contracted the virus from patients admitted to the hospital.
An employee at Clairwood Hospital said they were aware the hospital had eight patients who were in isolation.
“I know for sure that two patients are positive and two staff members are positive and they work in the wards. They also have relations with other departments,” said the employee.
The employee said hospital management was taking its Covid-19 cases lightly, and blamed the cross-infection on the shortage of masks and limitations on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE).
“The PPE is problematic. We’re not allowed masks, only those on the front line,” the employee claimed.
Employees have apparently been discussing the hospital’s situation with the district and also sent letters, but to no avail. They also said the hospital had Covid-19 positive patients, staff and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patients. “It’s a scary situation,” the employee said.
Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu said she did not believe there were hospital workers who had not been given PPE, because Clairwood was one of the hospitals the department had decided would be set aside for Covid-19 patients.
“As a provincial government, we have focused the majority of our attention on that particular hospital. However, if there is a specific case, then you are more than welcome to bring it up so we can investigate,” said Simelane-Zulu.
She added that if there were workers who tested positive at the hospital, she felt it sometimes may not be due to their work at the hospital, but because they may have been in contact with someone who, in turn, had contact with a person who had the virus.
Stoltz One, an international trading company that imports medical equipment and PPE, said their suppliers often sold out due to increased demand. Chief executive Leon Stoltz said the global demand was high and shortages of PPE had devastating effects on health-care workers around the world who were fighting the virus from the front-line and often treated patients without proper PPE.
A number of South African medical staff have tested positive for Covid-19 and in countries such as Italy, the UK and the US, some, including doctors, have lost their lives to the virus.
Last week, the Daily News reported that patients in isolation at Clairwood Hospital were being served stale food which had maggots. The Health Department said they were investigating the allegations.