Gauteng’s major hospitals have come under strain as the number of Covid-19 patients who need care continue to rise.
Though the number of infections appeared to decline marginally nationally, the figures have continued to fluctuate, with admissions at some hospitals increasing in Gauteng.
Hospitals are reporting that they are seeing low discharge rates, with many patients arriving with severe symptoms that require critical care.
Steve Biko Academic Hospital was under pressure two weeks ago, running out of space to accommodate patients. Sowetan found dozens of patients being accommodated in tents and outside. Most of them, lying on beds and sitting on wheelchairs were oxygenated.
The province’s biggest hospital, Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, in Diekloof, Soweto, has in the past week alone had to convert a number of ordinary beds into Covid-19 beds to accommodate an increasing number of patients with Covid-19 symptoms, especially teenagers, hospital management said yesterday.
Tembisa Hospital has on average been admitting 71 patients with Covid-19 symptoms.
A report by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) shows that a total of 1,024 Covid-19 patients are in intensive care units in Gauteng and 427 were in high care. More than 3,600 are in general wards.
NICD acting executive director Prof Adrian Puren said the high levels of hospital admissions were evidence that Gauteng was reaching the peak of the second wave in Covid-19 infections.
“We need to keep an eye on admissions. Admissions, people ending up in ICU and the need for oxygen and beds are all lag indicators. We really need to keep an eye on them and ensure that we are able to cope with those particular numbers.”
The Gauteng health department announced yesterday that it had 5,115 patients in public and private health-care facilities, up from Wednesday’s 4,724.
In July, during the peak of the first wave of the pandemic, Gauteng had around 6,900 patients hospitalised, according to Premier David Makhura.
Bara spokesperson Nkosiyethu Mazibuko said they had had to convert a total of 370 beds into Covid-19 beds over a week ago.
“The numbers [of admissions] are definitely increasing for patients under investigation and we are opening more wards to cater for the demand. Our wards are getting filled up quickly.”
“We will continue to convert more wards as the numbers increase to meet the demand,” Mazibuko said.
Management at Steve Biko Academic Hospital said the situation was “slightly under control”.
Hospital CEO Dr Mathabo Mathebula said they no longer had patients being treated outside the Covid-19 fever tents due to lack of space. She said the patient numbers were still high but “at acceptable levels that we can cope with”.
She said the drop had not been too significant. “More staff members have also came back to work. I’m more happy and hope we will continue to see less numbers,” Mathebula said.
She said last Sunday, the hospital had 72 patients requiring critical care, while yesterday there were 65. “There’s still too many sick people; the workload is still too much; staff is still overwhelmed. The only unit that has seen a real decline has been in trauma unit,” Mathebula said.
Tembisa Hospital CEO Lekopane Mogaladi said they were still under pressure due to patients spending more time being treated at the facility, leading to a lack of space for new patients.
“We have just had one bed available at ICU. The biggest challenge is that we are not discharging as many people as we would like. We are discharging two to three people a day. That is still very low,” Mogaladi said.
He said the reason was that people often got admitted when they were very sick. “We’ve decided that those who test positive but are not ill to isolate at home to reduce pressure at the hospital,” Mogaladi said.
Wits professor of vaccinology Shabir Madhi urged the provincial government to improve enforcement. “Gauteng is yet to peak, whereas Eastern Cape and Western Cape have already peaked. We need to look at the trajectory [of daily infections] by province.
“Not much that can be done in Gauteng than enforcement of regulations around mass gatherings, [the wearing of] face masks and ensuring facilities are adequately equipped,” Madhi said.
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