Mpilo Central Hospital and United Bulawayo Hospitals are
now only attending to emergency cases while all admitted patients who can cope
will be discharged, measures which will remain in place until Covid-19 is no
longer a threat.
All non-emergency operations are also being cancelled while
the elderly have been advised to limit their visits. Mpilo Central Hospital
Clinical Director Dr Solwayo Ngwenya yesterday said they were trying to
decongest the hospital as there were fears of the virus spreading in the
country.
Three positive cases have already been reported in Victoria
Falls and Harare. One patient has since died while the Government is yet to provide
details on the third patient who was mentioned in a national update
yesterday.
Dr Ngwenya said the elderly should by all means stay away
from hospital grounds and confine themselves to their homes as they were
vulnerable to the virus due to a weakened immune system associated with aging.
He urged the elderly running out of chronic illness
medication to try and send relatives to hospital for supplies.
“The situation is bad and as way of protecting our patients
and the rest of the public, we are trying to control the numbers at our
hospitals. We will now be attending to emergency cases only and have closed the
Outpatient Department. All non-emergency operations are suspended with
immediate effect. This virus is deadly and we realise that people seem to be
very relaxed as if they assume to be immune from it. The public must practice social
distancing and avoid public spaces unless if it is necessary,” said Dr Ngwenya.
“We will have to discharge all our stable patients as we
try to lower the numbers here in the hospital. Everyone with serious flu like
or Covid-19 like symptoms must not come to the hospital or go to a clinic. They
must call the rapid response team on their hotline to avoid possible infection
of other people as they are in transit to hospital. The Covid-19 team will come
to you.
“The world is faced with the fast spreading Covid-19
pandemic and everyone is at great risk of catching this highly infectious
disease. Mpilo Central Hospital must take measures to reduce the risk of
spreading the deadly virus.”
Asked what constitutes an emergency, he said: “A lot of
situations, incidents and conditions can constitute an emergency. However, we
advise patients that if someone is feeling unbearable discomfort, or
excruciating pain, or can see that they are taking care of a person who has
taken very ill, then that is an emergency. Emergencies can be accidents, burns,
asthma attacks, strokes, diabetes related collapsing and coma, very low or very
high blood pressure or sugar levels and many more. This list is not exhaustive
but the bottom line is that if it’s an emergency you will be treated.”
Dr Ngwenya said those that are not very sick and cannot be
listed under emergency cases will not be attended to at the hospital and said
they can only come after the Covid-19 situation had been contained.
He advised such patients to receive care at home until the
hospital can attend to them.
“Our Out-patients
departments are closed till further notice. All elective operations are
cancelled till further notice. We should enforce the One (1) visitor per
patient as continued in SI 77 of 2020. We should encourage people not to make
unnecessary visits to the hospital.
“All suspected cases of Covid-19 and their accompanying
relatives should be assessed by the Rapid Response teams from Mpilo Central
Hospital and Bulawayo City Health Department. Protective clothing for staff is
reportedly on its way and soon the Government will send us supplies. Meanwhile,
practice personal hygiene and social distancing.”
When Chronicle arrived at the hospital, scores of people,
patients and accompanying relatives were being turned away as hospital staff
informed them that the outpatient and causality departments had closed to the
public and were only attending to emergency cases.
“We have been here since 8am. it’s now way past lunch time.
We have not been served and are sitting in benches. We need our medication for
hypertension and diabetes and we cannot opt for the pharmacies in town because
it is too expensive. We hope that they attend to us today since they are saying
tomorrow, they will not be taking any patients,” said Gogo Esther Mdlongwa
(74).
United Bulawayo Hospital Chief Executive Officer Mrs
Nonhlanhla Ndlovu could not be reached for comment yesterday on the phone. When
Chronicle news crew arrived at the hospital, she was said to be in a meeting.
However, the hospital was also limiting patients and advising the public that
it would only attend to emergency cases only as a result of the Covid-19.
The UBH has also implemented the one visitor per patients
per day programme policy and kas also reduced visiting sessions to one
30-minute visit per day.
Meanwhile, travellers are still accessing Zimbabwe and
South Africa via Beitbridge Border Post pending the finalisation of a border
operational plan but the number of travellers has been going down since last
week.
As of yesterday, people were seen going to either sides of
the border and some of them said they wanted to join their spouses in either
country since schools had closed.
The assistant regional immigration officer in charge of
Beitbridge (Zimbabwe), Mr Nqobile Ncube said traffic started declining at the
port of entry as many travellers started complying with travel and preventative
measures from regional countries. He said they were waiting for a comprehensive
operation plan that will spell out the cut off period of access by human traffic
at the border. “As you are aware there has been a Presidential declaration on
the new border operations and everyone is willing to understand when it takes
effect and also how and who exactly is affected by that declaration,” he said.
Chronicle
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