Pretoria - Melomed Hospital in Richards Bay and Cape Town say they have implemented a number of precautionary measures to ensure the safety of their staff and patients during the Covid-19 outbreak.
The hospitals said they have not allowed any visitors into the hospital except on special circumstances that are to be signed off by management.
"Any person, staff member, patient, service provider or doctor entering any Melomed hospital, is required to undergo a screening process before entering any facility.
"All persons present in a Melomed hospital must follow strict personal protective equipment protocols, including the wearing of masks, at all times. and all persons within a hospital are required to strenuously, and on a regular basis, wash their hands thoroughly.
"Stations have been erected for this purpose in the facilities," the hospital said in a statement.
The hospital said it has also enforced strict physical distancing protocols.
"All Melomed acute facilities have strict processes and protocols in place, within demarcated and correctly controlled areas, where Covid-19 patients can be accommodated.
"Melomed 24 ambulance services is fully equipped to transport any Covid-19 patient, and has been allocated strict personal protective equipment and appropriate guidelines," the statement said.
In Gauteng, the province's department of health has urged residents to note that public hospital visits have been cancelled until lockdown regulations have passed.
“We noted with concern that community members continue to visit in numbers at public hospitals to see their loved ones despite the lockdown period announced by the president last week,” the department’s spokesperson Philani Mhlungu said.
He said discretion would be used for those collecting their results (eg, cancer), however, “if an issue can wait”, he urged residents to stay home.
“Everyone will be expected to sanitise when entering our premises and everyone will be screened for Covid-19.”
He said depending on the outcome of the screening, patients would be directed accordingly to triage points set up in their facilities.
Mhlungu said anyone with respiratory symptoms would be provided with a mask.
African News Agency/ANA
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