Kingsway Hospital manager shares feelings on closure
We are taking every precaution to safeguard our patients and people working at our facility.
Netcare Kingsway Hospital general manager, Annatjie Demetriou, said she was devastated for both management and staff members when the decision was taken to close the hospital for new patient admissions and the emergency department for providing care to the community.
“The decision was first and foremost taken in the interest of the safety of the patients in our care at the time, under the guidance of the Netcare Group’s CEO, Dr Richard Friedland, MD of the hospital division, Jacques du Plessis and regional director: coastal, Craig Murphy. During the closure, we safely discharged all our patients.”
Her and her team were excited to re-open to the community, doctors and other healthcare workers and, most of all, their patients on 11 May. “We worked extremely hard before re-opening, to ensure we were completely ready to accept new patients.
In addition to deep-cleaning and disinfecting the hospital and medical suites, we implemented additional precautionary safety measures, and also used the time to re-train all healthcare workers, including doctors, nursing professionals and support staff in hand hygiene, the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), social distancing and respiratory hygiene.”
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She supported Netcare’s decision to suspend visiting to most patients, but admitted that dealing with it on a personal level has been the most difficult part of the lockdown for her to overcome.
“Knowing how important regular contact is between patients and their loved ones, we had to find other safe ways for them to stay in touch. Also, not being able to provide healthcare services to our community, such as to people needing elective surgery, which we have again started providing, was also difficult.”
Asked how she feels about the easing of levels, she reckons it places an even greater responsibility on not only on healthcare providers, but every member of the Toti community to be responsible for protecting themselves and others from the risk of infection.
“It is now more important than ever for each person to remember to frequently wash their hands, keep to the social distancing rules, make sure to wear a mask when around other people, and remember not to touch their face. We will have to wait and see if we have had sufficient time in between levels four and three – only time will tell. I hope so, but so much depends on the human behaviour aspect.”
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Even with an asymptomatic index case in April showing no Covid-19 symptoms, the hospital vows to remain on high alert for the arrival of any possible asymptomatic persons. “With a predicted surge of cases in South Africa in coming months, we are doing intense screening of every person who has to enter the hospital, including everyone working there.
We require anyone to be admitted for elective surgery to go for testing 48 hours before admission and to self-quarantine from the time of testing to their admission, as they have to provide us with proof that they have tested negative before they will be admitted.
“We are also testing all patients admitted as emergencies to our facilities, and will care for them in specific zones to reduce the risk posed by any ‘invisible’ carriers of the infection. I don’t think anyone in healthcare will be able to breathe a sigh of relief while there is still Covid-19 in our country.
“I would like to reassure our community that we are taking every precaution to safeguard our patients, as well as all persons working at our facility. With visiting restrictions remaining in place, we understand how difficult it must be to not be able to visit your loved ones at this time. We have arranged a free 500MB per day WiFi service for patients, so that they can video or Skype call with their families. The community can assist us by communicating as frequently as possible with their loved ones in the hospital.
“I thank all staff members and doctors, and acknowledge that while it has been a challenging period for all of us, it has brought us closer together and made us realise even more that we are all on the same side and are dependent on each other to manage this difficult virus.”
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