The much-vaunted Nasrec field hospital only started operating 10 days ago thanks to a handful of doctors who lobbied for donations and worked their networks to find volunteers.
The hospital, which was showcased to the media three months ago was until then a warehouse with hospital beds more suited to a quarantine site.
On Monday Health Minister Zweli Mkhize along with MEC Bandile Masuku visited the hospital and praised staff and volunteers for their stellar work.
“We negotiated with Nasrec, with the government that you’ve got empty beds let’s make them oxygen beds today. We’ll help you do that, we’ll get the public to donate money. We’ll buy the oxygen concentrators, we’ll get volunteers here and we will start running a shift and doing all that, and that all started last week Thursday,” says volunteer Dr. Lynn Wilkinson.
She says the place was more of a quarantine site than a hospital. But all this is turning around thanks to the public. “ So we called for volunteers last week Thursday, we called for money last week Friday, Saturday we were in here with 100 concentrators bought by the public. Monday we received our first patients. Now we’ve got 20, the rate-limiting factor has been the ambulances which have been a disaster for us.”
Dr. Bandile Masuku on Gauteng Health readiness for COVID-19 peak:
Access to ambulances
Wilkinson says they have little to no access to ambulances which are sometimes needed to transport patients between hospitals. The Nasrec facility also has no medication on site.
Wilkinson says her team met with Mkhize and Masuku to outline their concerns and they are optimistic that help is at hand. The drastic intervention by the staff and the public, fly in the face of Masuku’s comments, calling the facility a field hospital, and even a flagship project. Masuku did however admit to a glitch regarding the ambulance system.
“So, this is one of the things we want to do to make sure that Nasrec becomes fully functional, capacity, we are doing quite well with pressure, with stress, challenges nothing is smooth. We just have to be able to respond and in real-time about the challenges that come up. “
Volunteers
One of the volunteers is Dr Lesidi Motsatsi from Rustenburg. He normally works with the Thuthuzela Rape Crisis Centre but he also volunteers at the hospital.
He says he is volunteering at Nasrec now in anticipation of what might happen in Rustenburg. “I know that we’re going to get involved in Rustenburg, we are going to get to the stage Gauteng is at. So we are thinking of setting up something like this so I thought I’ll get some experience helping out. “
Patients
Seageng Maebaneng is one of the first patients at the hospital. He says for more than three days, he experienced symptoms such as a headache, a tight chest, and one side of his face got swollen.
Only when he started losing his sense of smell and taste did he go for a test and self-isolate. He says the hardest thing for him was having a persistent headache for 10 days.
“(The) Hardest thing was the headache. I was drinking two panado, two disprin at the same time and it will still be there. I think headache I have it for 10 days.”
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize says he is satisfied that Gauteng is prepared for the surge in infections expected next month, however, he has warned that Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal still needed to stabilise.
The interventions are the response to changing patterns. There is no formula, there is no text book. The day to day action is what makes a difference. #NASRECVisit
— Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) July 20, 2020
Our clinicians are quite on top of the game, The decisions of admission are up-to the Clinicians. If people are reined away it will not be due to lack of beds, but because they do not meet the admission criteria. #NASRECVisit
— Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) July 20, 2020
