WATCH: Nasrec quarantine facility is ‘comfortable’, but lacks critical equipment

“We really need counseling,” said Segopodiso Seane, the wife of a nurse at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital who tested positive for the virus a few weeks ago.

She was recently admitted to the makeshift quarantine ward at Nasrec Expo Centre, after her husband had also previously tested positive and was sent to another quarantine facility.

“We talked about it with my husband. We are really going to need counselling because my 8-year old child who did not test positive, she is very traumatised so I think as a family the whole of us we really going to need counselling just for her to be calm. She is even refusing to go back to school,” she said to journalists during a guided tour of the facility.

After receiving her test results Seane asked her healthcare practitioners to send her into a quarantine facility as it would be impossible to self-quarantine at her small Johannesburg apartment where she also lived with her children.

“The stigma … I have already known about it because we live in a complex and our neighbours became aware,” she said. “By the time I came here, I had already counselled myself. I know that the stigma is there, but I think I can deal with it.”

One of Seane’s children also contracted the virus.

She and another patient at the facility said despite rumours of ill-treatment, the facility was more than accommodating of their needs and thanked government for their service.

Despite the trauma of her ordeal, Seane said she was welcomed by friendly staff at the quarantine facility and she was comfortable and well taken care of. Previously claims from the Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union (YNITU) suggested the place was extremely cold at night, according to complaints they had received, and did not have all the proper medical equipment.

Comfort aside, the Gauteng Health Department may be losing a race against time, as quarantine and additional Covid-19 treatment facilities were not ready to receive the expected surge of patients. As hospitals were already at full capacity, the department has promised to meet urgent needs for beds, equipment and staff at the seven locations including the largest one at Nasrec, where 88 patients have been kept for the past few weeks, mostly for observation and quarantine.

A 56-year-old man who was housed at the facility died last week after complaining of trouble breathing. At the department’s own admission, there was no critical treatment equipment such as ventilators at Nasrec. According to Masuku, the patient was hypertensive among other comorbidities.

Health MEC Bandile Masuku shot down rumours that the facility was ill-equipped, explaining that air-conditioning kept the ward at an agreeable temperature. He later added that because the place was only serving patients which were not in critical condition but tested positive and those under investigation, ICU equipment including ventilators had yet to be installed, with plans to do so in coming weeks.

After a presentation by Masuku for the Gauteng portfolio committee for health, DA MPL Makashule Gona said he was not satisfied with the planned interventions to deal with urgently needed beds, staff, and equipment at major health facilities, as well as the field hospitals.

He said government may have grossly underestimated how soon critical care units would be in demand in high numbers. Apparently the department was looking at the end of July in terms of a deadline for the delivery of extra resources to handle the overflow, raising questions about what had been done during the first phase of lockdown, which was ostensibly meant to allow time for preparation for exactly these requirements.

“The challenge is that we see the numbers continue to go up and we need to be able to increase capacity at a much faster pace. What is more worrying now is not just the number of cases but the numbers in terms of hospitalisation,” explained Gana.

“We are still trying to confirm reports that we have received that all our hospitals are at full capacity and the response from the department is not adequate to meet the demands insofar as Covid-19. What is also worrying is that the MEC was saying to another publication during an interview that basically they are resigned to the fact that there is going to be a shortage of critical beds in our hospitals, and that for me is worrying when an MEC is conceding that there will be a shortage.”

The department said it would be hiring additional staff to make up for the shortages at major hospitals, though at the moment, most of these additional facilities were manned by redeployed staff from central hospitals and clinics.

“We have been procuring a lot of additional staff, particularly in central hospitals such as Bara. We have been procuring and contracting a lot of additional staff mainly for our existing facilities like Bara, Thembisa Kalafong and all other hospitals,” said Masuku.

“We are also creating a central reserve force which will help us to replenish where a shortage…So this process of contracting hiring staff is a continuous process, it’s not going to stop anytime soon.”

Simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

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