- Both private and public hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal are filled to capacity as paramedics battle to get patients admitted.
- Many patients are being transferred to facilities in other provinces.
- Despite the Department of Health saying that there are 1 485 vacant beds, paramedics are adamant there is just no space.
The health system in KwaZulu-Natal is taking strain and "crippled", with both state and private hospitals at capacity.
Young people with respiratory distress are at the centre of the resurgence, according to the men and women on the ground.
Overwhelmed paramedics described the second wave of Covid-19 as "scary" and "absolute chaos", saying they have to wait for hours on end for facilities to accept patients.
They claimed Durban hospitals were reluctant to admit those who might require oxygen.
Patients have been transferred to other provinces because there were no beds as the need for oxygen has increased while hospitals run out.
KwaZulu-Natal has the highest number of Covid-19 infections across all provinces in the country.
Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu said in a statement on Christmas Day that over the past 24-hour reporting period, the province have registered 4 568 new Covid-19 infections, bringing the cumulative number of cases to 171 455.
Simelane-Zulu added 28 people died shortly before Christmas Day as a result of the coronavirus.
The total number of fatalities now sits at 3 901.
Concerning
She warned the numbers were astronomically high and increasing.
"This is extremely concerning, and we are pleading with citizens to help us curb the spread of Covid-19."
IPSS Medical Rescue operations director Paul Herbst told News24 on Sunday paramedics were not finding any hospitals for private patients on medical aids and they were being transferred to provincial hospitals.
Herbst said the situation was chaotic, with hospitals reluctant to accept patients who were oxygen dependent because the "hospitals are running out of oxygen".
"Our staff is sitting with patients for up to two to three hours before they can hand over. Every single patient we are doing now is [Covid-19] positive respiratory distress. And it is not been like the first wave where it was adult severely elderly patients, these are young fit people we are finding that have severe respiratory distress as well."
He added paramedics were transferring patients from Tongaat to Kokstad, to Harrismith up past Richards Bay to facilities that could accept them.
Herbst said:
He added there was a 99% probability that if you lived in the North Coast area, you would not find a hospital within a 60km radius that would accept you.
'Very bad'
"There is a complete overflow with [Covid-19] patients and we currently seeing that the health system is crippling, it's happening in front of us. It's very scary." ALS Paramedics director Garrith Jamieson told News24 the resurgence in Durban was "very bad" and paramedics were extremely busy.
He also mentioned that both private and public hospitals were at capacity.
"I know of some transfers last night where patients were transferred to the Free State because there are absolutely no beds. I'm speaking to all hospitals now and I know that facilities are capped to the max so we have a big problem in Durban."
Jamieson said ASL was inundated with patients needing oxygen treatment at home and it was trying to source cylinders for home use.
"Paramedics are extremely tired and they are aware it's a terrible situation, however, staff being turned away at hospitals, it's just demotivating because we sitting with patients in our ambulances for up to three to four hours trying to find hospitals."
KZN VIP Medical's Gareth Naidoo told News24 of a current case where a patient from Chatsworth had to be transported to a facility in Pietermaritzburg.
Experiencing mass difficulty
Naidoo said it was with great difficult that they could not attend to every case because the volumes were just too high.
"We are experiencing mass difficulty in coping with the amount of Covid cases that have come up. Our oxygen levels are running low, we are restocking our cylinders almost every single day. Each ambulance carries four oxygen cylinders."
He added paramedics were taking strain and working on back-to-back cases.
According to the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health, when the country registered 14 000 infections in one day, more than 4 000 of those cases were from the province. Simelane-Zulu said the province currently had 2 918 patients admitted in hospitals - in both the public and private sector.
Of those admitted, 14% required intensive care services.
'The worst is coming'
According to her, of the total number of available operational beds (1 485), 41% were vacant, while 355 of ICU beds were occupied.
Meanwhile, Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) provincial secretary Mandla Shabangu told News24 there was little protection for workers at the forefront.
"Until the country is taken to Level 3, the worse is coming because the behaviour out there is unbecoming due to a lack of consequences to those breaking the laws. The province is not coping at all as we are now hearing reports that some hospital mortuaries are full and dead bodies remain in the wards for days without being fetched due to mortuaries being full to capacity."
Shabangu said:
He added a planning department would have learnt from the first wave that there should be a pool of nurses working as relievers when those infected were in isolation or quarantine.
"But nothing has been done to deal with this problem which further exposes nurses to stress and compromise their immune system and make them very prone to the virus.
"We expected that by now, in all hospitals in the province, health and safety committees will be functional as per the act, but it is a shame that only 10% of hospitals in the province have functional OHS committees which is a shame while nurses are dying in the workplace, they are infecting their families because they are not protected by the employer."
Nehawu KZN provincial secretary Ayanda Zulu raised concerns about rising infections in the province.
Zulu said Nehawu had received a report from the Department of Health which indicated slightly more than 8 000 healthcare workers have tested positive since the beginning of Covid-19 in March.
"In that 8 000 cases, 7% of them are still very active cases. We have made a call to the KZN Department of Health to say, the department must ensure as the second wave is here, they must prioritise in providing workers with quality PPE. It is very important that the spread is not too much on the workers."
She added another issue stressed to the department was the educational training of workers around Covid-19.
"We must drive our nurse campaigns in our communities to make sure we encourage and enforce communities to comply with the basic principles.
"We are hoping that early next year, the first quarter, the vaccine will be almost around."
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