Private hospital groups told to remain calm, as vaccination rollout gets underway
“It is disappointing to be at on the other side of the door, where you are being turned away, while other members are being vaccinated.”
The Gauteng health department has once again called on healthcare workers to comply with the procedures of the vaccination rollout process.
This comes as Steve Biko academic hospital again saw an influx of healthcare workers flocking at the facility to receive their jabs, after following steps aimed at facilitating the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Similar scenes were experienced a week ago, when the rollo-out started. Bestcare emergency service spokesperson Xander Loubser said he was “very upset” as he stood in a queue for hours to get a tag.
He said he followed all the procedures as set out by the Gauteng health department.
“It is disappointing to be at on the other side of the door, where you are being turned away, while other members are being vaccinated,” Loubser said, adding that he and other private healthcare workers had followed the procedure as set out.
He said he did not understand why he needed a government employee card to be vaccinated.
“This was made clear by the CEO of Steve Biko. She said no private healthcare worker would be vaccinated today.
“A lot of private healthcare workers were sent away, while all the government employees were taken out of the queue and formed a new queue.”
He said the only way to be part of the queue was to present the government employment card. Loubser alleged that the security personnel from the government hospitals also formed part of this queue.
“From my understanding, they are not patient-facing employees such as nurses and emergency services who re front liners dealing with Covid-19. “It is quiet upsetting to see such flaws in the system.”
Gauteng department of health spokesperson Motalatale Modiba said that Steve Biko was facing the influx of healthcare workers because they were not adhering to procedures and time frames allocated.
“We have healthcare workers going to the hospital to demand vaccination, without following their appointments. “Healthcare workers need to remain patient as we will attend to them.”
All healthcare workers – those in the private sector and government are due to be vaccinated in the recently-rolled-out campaign.
Modiba said the Gauteng province had received 16 800 of the 80 000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccines and these were allocated to two study sites at Steve Biko and Chris Hani Baragwanath hospitals.
He said the 5 720 doses allocated to Steve Biko Academic Hospital had been used up.
“Gauteng by today would have finished its allotted doses, however Steve Biko is operating over the weekend, not because they are lagging behind, but because they are using excess dosages that they have been given.
“There are an additional 5 000 doses we got after completing the original allocation for Steve Biko.”
Modiba said the new doses would also be split between government and private healthcare workers. He said the department was still offering last vaccines to general practitioners and dentists on Saturday and Sunday at 08:00 until 10:00, and for private hospital groups 10:00-16:00.
Netcare CEO Dr Richard Friedland said the vaccination rollout in the private sector was going well.
Friedland said there was misunderstandings as the private sector was using government facilities for the rollout.
“There is just some confusion, however, it is understandable as no one has written a book on the rollout of vaccines,” he said adding that the rollout was “working out quite well and the co-operation is quite good.”
The private sector in Gauteng was allocated 5 571 of the vaccines, with 5 030 set aside for hospital groups and 541 for GPs.
“We have received our vaccines and by this afternoon we would have administered 3 340 vaccines,” Friedland said. He said they were granted 24 000 vaccines nationally and were looking to utilise all their stock by Wednesday next week.
“We are further opening two sites on Saturday in Gauteng, at Lenmed Ahmed Kathrada private hospital and Netcare Milpark hospital.”
The department of health earlier this week warned health workers against showing up at vaccination sites without following procedures.
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