Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital ready to tackle second wave - CEO

Published Dec 30, 2020

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Johannesburg - Following the recording of one million Covid-19 cases in South Africa, Gauteng Health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi visited Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto to check on its the state of readiness during the second wave of the pandemic.

Mokgethi said she would visit other health facilities.

“Our purpose was to check on the readiness in terms of the second surge, and as people come back from the holidays we will be expecting the numbers (of cases) to grow,” Mokgethi said.

She expressed her confidence in the capacity of the hospital and its ability to deal with the new surge in cases.

“We have enough beds; we have recruited quite a number of staff. We will be able to cope with the surge unless something drastic happens,” Mokgethi said.

Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, the third-largest hospital in the world, with over 3 000 beds, provides support to surrounding hospitals and has 139 Covid-19 cases at present.

Acting chief executive of Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital, Steve Mankupane, said most new cases at the hospital were young people.

Mankupane said the hospital was coping with admissions at present, and had just 10 Covid-19 patients on ventilators.

As part of alleviating the pressure on the hospital’s front-line workers, Mankupane told the media that more than 240 new staff members would start work on Friday to help deal with admissions during the second wave.

“To deal with the issue of fatigue among front line workers, we are looking at getting more staff, which is why we are happy with staff coming in on Friday,” he said.

South Africa is in week 54 of the pandemic, with 1 011 871 cumulative cases reported, and over 7 000 new cases.

Gauteng has recorded 276 133 Covid-19 cases, and 1 861 new cases and 5 356 deaths.

The Star

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