Netcare N17 and Life Springs Parkland hospitals prepared for Covid-19

In response to our enquiry on hospital readiness for Covid-19, Netcare N17 Hospital and Life Springs Parkland Hospital say they are prepared to deal with the outbreak.

Calm, caution and absolute vigilance are required to ensure any public health risk, including the latest Covid-19 coronavirus, is managed responsibly, says Netcare Group chief executive officer Dr Richard Friedland.

“Within all Netcare Group facilities, including Netcare hospitals and Medicross medical and dental centres, we are putting a number of additional precautionary safeguards in place to protect all patients, visitors, staff members, doctors, health-care and other service providers in our facilities,” Friedland says.

“We wish to assure the South African public that they are in safe hands at a Netcare Group facility during the outbreak of the virus.

“Credible health information is a powerful means of prevention, and we will do our utmost to help equip the public with important Covid-19 information at this time.”

Netcare formed a multi-disciplinary task team as soon as the outbreak of a new coronavirus in China was made public early in January and has since implemented comprehensive precautionary measures to ensure that all group operations are fully prepared to respond to and manage any cases of Covid-19.

These measures will reduce the risk of the virus presenting in any Netcare facilities and, if it should surface, to contain the virus and prevent it from spreading.

“We have closely cooperated with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and the Department of Health (DoH) on an ongoing basis, and have aligned our clinical protocols for managing Covid-19 patients with their clinical guidelines.

“We have, in addition, done training in our group’s facilities in accordance with the NICD and DoH guidelines so they are appropriately prepared to help those who may have the virus,” Friedland notes.

Prevention protection measures now in place at Netcare Group facilities

• Ensuring that every person entering our facilities clean their hands.

• Ensuring that all persons entering our facilities are verbally screened for Covid-19 risk at the main points of entry as a first line of defence, and do further screening where indicated.

• Gazebos or tents are being erected at entrances to emergency departments and main hospital entrances, where our staff members will conduct the screening.

• At facilities with multiple entrances, some entrances may be closed to ensure adherence to hand-cleaning and screening.

• Deploying ultraviolet (UV) light disinfection robots in those of our hospitals that do not as yet have their own, as soon as possible. These mobile robots have been proven to be extremely effective in identifying and destroying viruses, bacteria and fungal spores.

• Restricting visiting times in our hospitals and the number of visitors allowed to visit a patient at a time.

• Daily screening of all of our staff, including personnel of external service providers in all areas of the business.

• Making credible information on Covid-19 available to patients and visitors, as well as to the public.

The public is requested to assist in the following ways when visiting Netcare facilities:

• Please phone the emergency department or your health-care provider before coming in for a consultation if you are concerned that you may be infected with the coronavirus. This will enable us to take the appropriate precautionary measures to ensure that our staff and others at the facility are safeguarded while you are being assessed, treated or admitted, until it can be confirmed whether you have tested positively or not for Covid-19.

• Please use the hand spray or hand rub available at the entrances and at various points inside our facilities to clean your hands as you enter, and at every available opportunity within our facilities, as well as when leaving.

• Please be patient while we are doing verbal screenings, as this is to the benefit of both those visiting our hospitals, our patients, and those providing services in our hospitals

• Please refrain from visiting patients in our hospitals if you are unwell.

• Please adhere to any decisions by our hospitals to restrict visiting hours and the number of visitors per patient at a time.

Life Springs Parkland Hospital can confirm that to date none of its patients have been diagnosed with Covid-19.

In response to the global outbreak of Covid-19, Life Healthcare says it is working closely with the NICD and has put a number of measures in place to support their current infection prevention and risk protocols for suspected Covid-19 cases and a potential outbreak.

They say they take all suspected Covid-19 cases seriously and manage these according to NICD and World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines.

All relevant hospital staff, including emergency units, have been briefed and trained according to these guidelines and are prepared to manage suspected and positive cases of the virus.

As standard procedure, and as per the NICD and WHO guidelines, patients who have travelled to areas affected by Covid-19 and meet case criteria are tested for this virus.

In the event that a suspect case is confirmed, hospital staff are trained to follow all required procedures as per the NICD.

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