Wilkins Hospital says it did all it could to save the life
of Zororo Makamba, given the resources at its disposal.
The hospital said before admission into the isolation
facility, it took oxygen tanks to his house twice, against standard procedure,
which was administered per mask.
Oxygen is normally delivered through a nasal cannula at low
concentration levels, but a mask delivers high concentration levels.
While in admission, the hospital said its staff worked flat
out together with Makamba’s two private doctors to try and manage his
condition. In fact, the first nurse who attended to Makamba upon arrival at the
hospital is said to be unwell and presently in isolation.
The local authority is awaiting her test results. This
comes amid revelations that all referral and private hospitals in the city had
refused to take in Makamba for intensive care, which could have seen him put on
a ventilator.
Sadly, Makamba became the first victim to die of
coronavirus in the country and the second to test positive of the same. In
Covid-19 response, ventilators are used to manage the breathing function of
patients. The current set up in the healthcare delivery system is that
ventilators are found at referral institutions where serious cases are referred
to from a primary healthcare facility.
Wilkins together with Beatrice Road Infectious Diseases
Hospitals are under Harare City Council and act as primary healthcare facilities.
Ordinarily, any complications requiring special services such as ventilators
are referred to central hospitals for further management.
“All central hospitals refused to take him, even private
hospitals refused, arguing that it was an infectious case hence should be
attended to at the isolation centre.
“This was despite the fact that Wilkins is administered by
Harare City Council and have not received any financial resources from central
government to upgrade the facility to an ideal isolation centre. As part of our
upgrading, we have reserved seven ICU beds with provision for ventilators and
we are still resource mobilising to get equipment for those beds.
“Out of the US$6,7 million, which we requested for Covid
-19 response, we were only given $100 000, which is yet to reflect in our
account. We were given an unfunded mandate. By declaring the outbreak a
national emergency, we expected financial assistance to upgrade the facility to
an ideal isolation centre. Now its appearing as if Covid-19 is a Harare City
Council responsibility.
“All central hospitals are now referring all cases here,
including some which do not even meet the screening criteria, thereby
overburdening our staff, which are already demotivated by the negative comments
coming from clients. All facilities should be doing assessments before
referring cases here.
“Already, staff has started coming up with excuses not to
come to work,” said Harare City Council director for health services Dr Prosper
Chonzi.
Asked why Makamba was put in an ordinary ward with no
adequate facilities to take care of his condition, Dr Chonzi said at the time
he was admitted, the wing which was previously reserved for coronavirus cases
was undergoing renovations, facilitated by the Chinese Government and the hospital
had to improvise. Refurbishments are expected to be completed by weekend.
“Not all Covid-19 patients require ventilators, a majority
will recover without them. It is unfortunate, we started with one of the worse
cases which required a ventilator.
“However, in our preparedness plan, we had budgeted for
seven ventilators for the ICU beds and as said before, we are yet to get
funding to fully equip these rooms,” said Dr Chonzi.
Health personnel screen suspected cases for coronavirus at
Wilkins Infectious Diseases Hospital. — Pictures: Tawanda Mudimu
Dr Chonzi said Covid-19 national response required “all
hands on deck” instead of shifting all the burden to the local authority administered
facility. “There is need to invest more in this isolation facility. We need to
make sure that serious cases go somewhere else. Our frontline workers are
demotivated, they need risk allowances and they think someone in management has
taken their money when in actual fact nothing has come down to us.”
A quick tour of the facility showed that indeed the wing,
which many authorities assessed for preparedness previously, was under
renovations. This makes management of any serious cases difficult under current
circumstances. Floors, walls, handwashing basins, waste are all being spruced
up.
There are also rooms with sockets for ventilators, but are
not yet ready for use.
The Herald also witnessed a dozen people waiting to be
screened. Although no exact figures
could be provided immediately, authorities at the hospital said nearly 200
people were screened between Tuesday and Wednesday.
Responding to the funding gap, Health and Child Care
Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo yesterday said Government was in the process of
mobilising more resources for response.
He said the response plan has since been revised upwards to
US$100 million. Dr Moyo said no funding has so far been disbursed but
Government has also committed local resources towards Covid-19, which would be
disbursed as soon as possible.
In terms of the country’s capacity to manage worst cases,
Dr Moyo said Government has sourced ventilators, which will soon be handed over
to Wilkins as it completes its refurbishments over the coming weekend.
He said more centres will also be established countrywide.
He said Government will also continue to train more health workers to build
their capacity to deal with Covid-19. Herald
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