UPDATE: KZN Health MEC and Netcare CEO on the situation at St Augustines

DURBANITES are alarmed at being at the epicentre of the latest news regarding Covid-19.

This comes after it was announced that Netcare St Augustine’s Hospital will be temporarily closed due to the high number of positive coronavirus cases being linked to it.

Netcare issued a statement on Wednesday (8 April) in which it assured South Africans that safeguarding each and every person in its care, staff members, doctors and others who work at Netcare St Augustine’s Hospital, as well as in all other Netcare hospitals, against Covid-19 and other infections has, and will always be, of paramount importance.

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Speaking about the positive cases at Netcare St Augustine’s Hospital, Dr Richard Friedland, chief executive officer of the Netcare Group, said, “Netcare St Augustine’s Hospital has a total of 15 pre-existing community acquired Covid-19 patients in its dedicated Covid-19 isolation units at present. Of these patients, we can confirm that one person has already recovered and tested negative and is expected to be discharged shortly.”

“Of the staff and doctors tested, we confirm that 47 people who are connected with our hospital have tested positive for Covid-19. Of the 47 positive cases, 33 are in self-isolation and a further 14 are being accommodated by Netcare to ensure that they are able to safely self-quarantine. Of those who tested positive, one person has since tested negative following his period of self-quarantine and has since returned to work.

“We are deeply saddened that, despite our very best efforts and precautions, there have been a total of four Covid-19 associated deaths at Netcare St Augustine’s Hospital in Durban, since the outbreak started in South Africa,” said Dr Friedland.

“As a healthcare group that holds the sanctity of life above all else, every death is one too many. At this tragic time, we wish to express our heartfelt condolences to the loved ones of the people who passed away. They are in our thoughts and prayers,” he added.

KZN media briefing

However, during a media briefing on Wednesday, 8 April, KZN MEC for Health, Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu said 48 of the 66 confirmed cases found at the hospital were staff.

This echoed the numbers released this week by Dr Zweli Mkhize, South Africa’s minister of health.

We are concerned about developments at St Augustine’s Hospital. 66 tested positive over the past few days. About 48 of them are staff. The Provincial dept. is engaging the hospital, with a view to closing parts of the hospital down

— Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) April 7, 2020

Simelane-Zulu, while answering questions during the press briefing, mentioned that her team was still waiting for a full list of agency staff who were employed at the facility.

She mentioned that this might be due to some people being afraid of being identified due to them “moonlighting”.

As at today the number of confirmed #COVID19 cases are 1845 pic.twitter.com/ZMenLDs8o2

— Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) April 8, 2020

She explained that sometimes nursing staff who are employed in state hospitals might try to make extra money working as agency nurses at private facilities.

“Which is illegal, by the way,” she said. “But this might be why we have had some problems getting the full list,” she added.

KwaZulu-Natal Premier, Sihle Zikalala, who was also present at the same briefing on Wednesday afternoon, said the province has called on Netcare’s management to assist them in an investigation of how Covid-19 positive cases were handled at the facility.

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“We are not judging,” he said. “We are still observing the situation, we were informed that 1982 people were tested and of those, 735 were permanent staff and 112 were nurses, cleaning staff and administrative staff.”

“We were also told that 74 patients were tested,” he added.

Simelane-Zulu also mentioned that of the deaths in KZN, a large number had come from the hospital.

During the briefing Simelane-Zulu also stated, in contradiction to Friedland’s statement that five of Covid-19 related deaths in KZN have come from St Augustine’s Hospital.

KZN has had the dubious honour of leading the provinces in its number of deaths from Covid-19, it was also the province where the first recorded case in the country was found, and currently sits at third on the list of provincial numbers of infections with 354 as of Wednesday night.

Netcare statement

Netcare, in its statement released on Wednesday described the challenges caused by Covid-19.

“Two of the greatest challenges associated with Covid-19 is that those infected do not always have symptoms. Even in the presence of extensive and effective infection prevention measures, such as those in place within Netcare hospitals, any building where people are brought together poses a potential risk for infection,” said its statement issued via its public relations agency, MNAPR.

“Unfortunately, with Covid-19 people can transmit the virus before they show symptoms that can be screened for, and where one person is contagious the virus can very quickly spread to others. For this reason, among other precautions Netcare took the extraordinary measure some weeks ago of suspending visiting and public entry to its hospitals except for in specific exceptional circumstances and closed its pharmacies and coffee shops,” Friedland was quoted in the statement.

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“The ideal would be if all healthcare facilities could test, and not just screen, every person coming into our hospitals, and to do that on a repeat basis as some may at first test negative,” noted the CEO.
Additional measures at Netcare St Augustine’s Hospital

“We wish to provide comfort and assurance to staff, patients, doctors and the community that we are working tirelessly to ensure additional precautionary and preventive measures are in place to contain the spread of Covid-19,” added Friedland.

 

Some of these measures include:
• The hospital’s emergency department was closed on the evening 2 April 2020 and all planned surgery and admissions cancelled until further notice.
• The process to completely decontaminate and disinfect the entire hospital through deep cleaning began on 2 April 2020 and remains ongoing. As an additional precaution terminal cleaning using a high dosage of chlorine, followed by disinfection with the aid of ultra-violet disinfection robots is being done. This will be completed by tomorrow.
• As a further precaution, Netcare St Augustine’s Hospital has been contacting all patients who were treated at the emergency department or admitted into the hospital as from 1 March 2020. This is to determine if any of these patients require any further investigation or testing.
• Individuals who have visited Netcare St Augustine’s Hospital or have been in hospital since 1 March 2020 are welcome to contact us on our 24-hour helpline on 0800 111 266 if they have not as yet heard from the hospital.
• The Netcare clinical team is working closely with Professor Salim Karim, a special adviser to the Minister of Health, and a team of epidemiology and infectious diseases specialists from the University of KZN, to fully investigate the underlying cause and nature of this outbreak.
PPE: Strict policies, training aligned to best practice

The media statement from the hospital also said that Dr Friedland noted that contrary to what it described as “certain misleading claims,” staff members and doctors at Netcare St Augustine’s Hospital and all other Netcare facilities have all been provided with appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) on an ongoing basis.

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“No Netcare facility has ever expected of a staff member to work without appropriate PPE. Our PPE policy includes a directive on the wearing of masks during the Covid-19 pandemic which is, in fact, more conservative in that it provides greater protection than the current recommendations and guidelines of two highly respected health organisations, namely the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).”

“In addition, we have re-trained over 16 750 healthcare workers, other staff members and doctors on the appropriate and correct use of personal protective equipment, and compliance in this regard is being closely monitored.”

Consultation and guidance

“Since the spread of infections began as a result of two patients, who were admitted for other medical reasons and initially had no travel history or symptoms of Covid-19 but subsequently tested positive, we have been in close consultation with the KZN DoH and the NICD and continue to strictly follow their guidance and instructions,” said Friedland.

“All the findings from the in-depth investigation will be fully assessed and used to strengthen and further improve existing processes and protocols. These will be shared across the group and with all other involved and interested parties,” noted Friedland.

“Our deep and heartfelt thanks go to all our healthcare workers, nurses and doctors and their families and loved ones for their incredible efforts under these very trying and challenging circumstances. We salute their efforts and remain deeply grateful to them all,” concluded Friedland.

Caxton Local Media Covid-19 reporting

Dear reader,
As your local news provider, we have the duty of keeping you factually informed on Covid-19 developments. As you may have noticed, mis- and disinformation (also known as “fake news”) is circulating online. Caxton Local Media is determined to filter through the masses of information doing the rounds and to separate truth from untruth in order to keep you adequately informed. Local newsrooms follow a strict pre-publication fact-checking protocol. A national task team has been established to assist in bringing you credible news reports on Covid-19.
Readers with any comments or queries may contact National Group Editor Irma Green (irma@caxton.co.za) or Legal Adviser Helene Eloff (helene@caxton.co.za).

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