JOC dissatisfied with Vryheid Hospital
"This department is supposed to lead by example as the champions in this fight against Covid-19".
Lolo Madonsela
The local Joint Operations Committee (JOC) on Covid-19 has expressed its dissatisfaction with Vryheid District Hospital’s (VDH) conduct.
During the weekly JOC meetings, VDH has failed to give AbaQulusi statistics on Covid-19 positive cases and screenings, and that led to the JOC Exco requesting a meeting with hospital CEO Fikile Ngema and other senior managers last week Monday to address the “apparent shortcomings” as cited by the JOC.
“We requested coherence from the hospital and the hospital promised to do better.
‘After the meeting, we did a walkabout in the hospital and we found that in some sections of the hospital, there was no social distancing and hand sanitizing.
“This department is supposed to lead by example as the champions in this fight against Covid-19. The hospital promised to do better, but yet again they did not give stats as required today.
‘The CEO did not even delegate anyone to give stats in this sitting, as expected. These are mandatory meetings of which the CEO should sit in, but that has not been happening for a very long time.
Also read: Schools in AbaQulusi hit by Covid-19
“We, as the JOC, have escalated our concern to the Provincial Department of Health in the hopes that it will intervene.
“We are seeing a rise in the number of positive cases in AbaQulusi and Zululand, yet the department that should be leading us is not doing so. The picture looks terrible and the smooth running of things will be affected, as some of the officials have also been affected by Covid-19,” said JOC secretary Phumlani Mchunu.
The JOC also visited hair salons after they were given the go-ahead to operate on the relaxed Alert Level 3 of the lockdown and it found that the majority of these hair salons were owned by immigrants.
“A lot of them were illegal immigrants operating these hair salons, which became a challenge to arrest them due to space challenges in the police stations. We therefore had to let them go with a warning.
‘This will be a serious challenge for the Department of Home Affairs to ensure that those who need to renew their documents do so, as that service is still suspended under Alert Level 3,” said Mchunu.
Mchunu further encouraged the JOC members to continue with the fight against Covid-19 and not relax, as positive cases seem to be on the rise in Zululand.
“Government departments are no longer doing what is expected of them; we are all relaxed and that should not be the case. Yes, the lockdown levels may have been relaxed, but that does not mean we must also relax; we have to continue to enforce the lockdown regulations as per government’s specifications and continue to educate our people to follow these regulations,” added Mchunu.
Addressing the issue of schools, AbaQulusi Schools Inspector Ntshangase said they will work with the Department of Health at all the schools that have been affected by Covid-19.
By Friday last week, 20 schools had been affected by 34 Covid-19 positive cases, with three of those being learners, five cleaners, 26 teachers and two deaths. 11 schools were temporarily closed for three days to allow for disinfection and deep cleaning.
The affected schools were Mpofini, Isololumuzi, Vryheid High, Hluma, Vryheid Comprehensive, Siphosethu, Lakeside, Ngoje, Skhulile, Elangeni and Mpumeleloyethu.
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