Doctors and nurses are forced to mop the floors at Coronavirus designated hospitals in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
Rats feed on the blood spilt on the floor at a Coronavirus designated hospital in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. (Picture Credits: BBC)
With lack of the support staff, especially the cleaners going on strike, nurses and doctors are forced to take additional responsibility as ‘cleaners’ along with their regular duties in two hospitals in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. An investigative report by the BBC unearthed untold stories of horrific scenes that emerged and the medical staff is traumatized, after blood and medical waste spill all over the floor where Coronavirus patients are being treated.
The Livingston Hospital, designated specially for Coronavirus treatment, saw patients sleeping on the floor on newspapers as all beds are full, while doctors at Dora Nginza Hospital, are going through traumatic experience with an overwhelming inflow of patients everyday.
With the hospitals being understaffed, doctors have been doing their best to prioritize and perform the most urgent surgeries. They are also forced to take up cleaning work along with a few available nurses including mopping the floor and cleaning linen, revealed a doctor in an Email to the BBC.
Hygiene is being hard to maintain as scenes of blood and other medical waste were to be seen on the floor with rats being spotted drinking the blood of patients.
A lack of medical emergency aids has left patients fighting over ventilators and oxygen for urgent medical needs. A senior nurse told the BBC that she comes to work everyday in fear. Another nurse said that, ”It is getting chaotic everyday with the numbers rising and there are lot of pregnant women in the wards.”
At Dora Nginza Hospital, there was an inflow of overwhelming number of patients which left to many mothers and infants die. A medic explained having attended personally in the delivery of two dead infants and was aware that there were more left to attend.
The medic further added that having so many mothers and infants dying in one week at the hospital is ”unacceptable”. Both hospitals have been having an inrush of patients with a skeletal staff to attend has are experiencing horrific scenes.
The tale of apathy isn’t over yet. For a population of 7 million people in South Africa, only two specialist doctors are available to treat infectious disease is of real concern. While South Africa had an initial stability in containing the virus, over the recent past, there has been a steady rise in the number of infections and death related to Coronavirus cases. The numbers stand at 311,049 confirmed cases with 4,453 deaths
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