Cape Town - Hundreds of private healthcare workers in the Western Cape lined up outside the Groote Schuur and Tygerberg hospitals on Saturday to receive the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccination.
It was part of government’s ambitious plan to vaccinate the country’s healthcare workers who are on the frontline in fighting the pandemic that has so far claimed the lives of 48 859 South Africans.
Sachin Nathoo, Chief Information Officer at Melomed Private Hospitals said it was an exciting day for the health workers who have endured a lot of stress and battled exhaustion while caring for patients infected by the virus.
Many of the healthcare workers have been infected themselves.
Nathoo explained that the healthcare workers Sisonke J&J vaccination programme that aims to ensure that healthcare workers worst affected by the covid-19 pandemic, get access in the governments phase 1 vaccination rollout.
The private healthcare workers in the Western Cape who have been identified for the first round of vaccinations were scheduled to get the jab on Saturday and Sunday.
“The 20th February 2021 will remain a historic day within the healthcare sector of this great country, as it represented the day that unified the contributions of the private and public sectors of the industry,” Nathoo explained.
“The private sector, represented by both staff and medical specialists, were given the opportunity to be vaccinated as part of the governments first phase roll out of the Covid 19 Johnson & Johnson vaccine initiative.
“Front line works across the private sector, from all four different private hospital groups, travelled to Groote Schuur Hospital and Tygerberg Hospital, to partake in this historic initiative,” Nathoo said.
He thanked the Western Cape Department of Health for their outstanding contribution to saving lives and ensuring solidarity during the vaccine initiative
“Dr Bhavna Patel and her excellent team at Groote Schuur Hospital, along with Dr Mukosi and his team at Tygerberg Hospital, were excellent hosts and facilitators during this process. Secondly, we wish to thank the National Department of Health for their strong guidance during the planning and execution process.
We also wish to thank our counterparts, particularly our colleagues at Netcare, Mediclinic, Life Healthcare and co-members of the National Hospital Network, for coming together and ensuring strong collaboration across the different groups,“ said Nathoo.
“The events of today were the culmination of many months of hard work and innovative collaboration, bringing teams of vaccinators and administrative staff together from the different groups to ensure our healthcare workers received efficient access to the vaccines,” he said.
IOL