BULAWAYO hospitals are experiencing a shortage of space in wards designated for Covid-19 as positive cases continue to soar in the city with Thorngrove Infectious Diseases Hospital — a designated isolation centre, having patients sharing oxygen points.
According to a weekly Covid-19 update for the city, as of Friday, Thorngrove had 34 patients admitted to the hospital’s isolation wing against a bed capacity of 28. In an interview with Sunday News, the City Health Director, Dr Edwin Sibanda said the situation meant patients now had to share oxygen points, which he said was not ideal.
He said the situation could be worse in the coming few days as United Bulawayo Hospital’s (UBH) Old Bartley Memorial was also fast filling up.
“Thorngrove has filled up because from a designated capacity of 28 beds we have 34 patients admitted, which has seen us now having patients sharing oxygen points, which in itself is far from being ideal. We are, however, making do with what we have as we noted that not all the patients can be on oxygen at the same time, therefore they can easily share. What is worrying is that UBH is also filling up, which if it happens will surely point to a crisis,” said Dr Sibanda.
According to the figures, UBH which has a designated capacity for Covid-19 patients of 42, had 40 patients on Friday. At UBH there are nine severe cases, with four patients in the Intensive Care Unit, according to Dr Sibanda.
Mpilo Central Hospital, with a bed capacity for Covid-19 patients of 32 has already admitted 14 patients, meaning they can only take in a further 18. At Elangeni Isolation Centre which takes in those who do not need hospitalisation, there are 34 patients admitted, with a bed capacity of 70, while at the Roman Catholic-owned Mater Dei hospital, with a bed capacity of 35, just nine people are admitted, although the private facility charges way above what the majority can afford.
According to the Ministry of Health and Child Care as of Friday the city had a number of suburbs classified as Covid-19 hotspots, with 819 active cases and six deaths recorded on that day. The city also had 39 new cases. Acting chief executive officer of Mpilo Central Hospital Professor Solwayo Ngwenya said they were receiving patients in large numbers although they were not a designated Covid-19 centre.
“At Mpilo we had a ward where we were housing persons under investigation for Covid-19 and we had no patients generally. Then we started having four to five patients but this week suddenly the numbers shot up to 20 patients in that ward. These are no longer patients under investigation.
As we speak, we have got these infected people and we cannot take them to UBH or Thorngrove Hospital because those centres are saying they are full and cannot take any Covid-19 patients,” he said in an interview on Friday.
Prof Ngwenya said Mpilo was slowly becoming a Covid-19 centre but resources were bound to run out.- The Sunday News
