Call for extra vaccination points as doctors sent packing from city hospital
Doctor reports having been turned away from Tshwane’s prime vaccination site on Sunday with the hospital stating they had reached the number of vaccines for the day.
There has got to be more vaccination points to accommodate the large numbers of health workers who turn up for the jab.
This was the sentiment of a Pretoria general practitioner who was allegedly turned away from Steve Biko academic hospital for his Covid-19 vaccination appointment due to the hospital “reaching its daily quota”.
Several other health workers complained of the same problem when they went for their jabs at the hospital.
Dr Lukas de Kock had a vaccination appointment at the hospital on Sunday.
He said when he arrived he was told he would not get his jab due to the hospital reaching its day’s quota “as many more people had shown up without appointments”.
De Kock said he was told due to an influx of people turning up at Tshwane’s prime vaccination site, people with appointments also had to stand in long queues to get the vaccine.
“I do not know how this will be dealt with. As doctors, we cannot leave our practices to stand in line for the whole day, because we need to attend to the sick. That’s why there was the online system but now things were different when I got to the vaccination site,” he said.
“No communication was ever communicated to me that my appointment was cancelled. I was only told when I got there.
“The doctor in charge apologised and told me several others were not vaccinated as a lot of people showed up and had to be vaccinated. The hospital reached the day’s limit, which saw others being turned away.”
De Kock said the vaccination administration was becoming frustrating and unclear for private doctors.
“Covid-19 has been with us for a while and the department needs to plan better and administer better regarding this. There has got to be more vaccination points in the region to accommodate the large numbers.”
Gauteng health MEC Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi said that healthcare workers would not be excluded from the national vaccination program.
The high demand has resulted in some healthcare workers flooding to Steve Biko academic hospital on Sunday, out of fear that the vaccine would run out before they got their jabs.
“We want to reassure our healthcare workers that there is no need to panic as none of them will be left behind. To do so would be catastrophic and will leave the system exposed as they are an integral part of the healthcare system,” Mokgethi said.
“The implementation study is being rolled out in phases to both private and public frontline workers. The program started at Steve Biko and the Chris Hani Baragwanath hospitals and all our facilities in the province will be covered as the vaccine doses get delivered to the province.”
She said as of Saturday, 20 February, about 2 134 healthcare workers had been vaccinated.
The Gauteng province received 16 800 Johnson & Johnson doses – 11 080 for Chris Hani Baragwanath and 5 720 for Steve Biko academic hospital.
“We are encouraged by the commitment shown by the healthcare workers and organised labour. The demand to get vaccinated has been growing since this program started.
“We will continue engaging other stakeholders as we all are aware that the fight against Covid-19 is far from over and it requires a collective effort.”
Mokgethi urged healthcare workers in Gauteng who were yet to register on the electronic vaccine data system portal vaccine.enroll.health.gov.za to do so in order to get vaccinated.
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