GOVERNMENT has ordered medical facilities to take in patients who do not have COVID-19 test results, amid concerns by health workers that the move would expose them to infection.<\/p>\n
Public and private medical facilities had lately resorted to demanding COVID-19 results before admitting patients as infection rates among health service providers increase.<\/p>\n
They argued that health personnel did not have adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), a situation which put them at risk of contracting the disease from patients.<\/p>\n
The situation has escalated in public hospitals following a strike by nurses and senior doctors, leaving only skeleton staff to attend to patients.<\/p>\n
But Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa said refusal to admit untested patients was in contravention of the Public Health Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cGovernment warns those medical facilities who have been contravening the Act. Both public and private facilities should admit all patients without the prerequisite of a COVID-19 test and proceed to do a PCR [polymerase chain reaction] test,\u201d she told journalists yesterday.<\/p>\n
Recently, Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals said the prevailing situation had forced them to only admit emergency cases while those already in hospital would be tested for COVID-19.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll staff and patients will be assumed COVID-19 positive unless tested and confirmed otherwise,\u201d the hospital said.<\/p>\n
The hospital said resources permitting, all patients should be tested for COVID-19 before admission. Those who test positive before admission would then be admitted directly to the COVID-19 centre.<\/p>\n
Doctors in private practice have also raised concern over the overwhelming number of patients at their facilities following the ongoing strike by nurses and senior doctors at public hospitals.<\/p>\n
Borrowdale Trauma Centre chief executive Vivek Solanki said the cost of preventive care was high as every patient was potentially COVID-19 positive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe danger also is in the fact that the COVID-19 tests are not very accurate with a high probability of false negative results. This means that the nurses and doctors attending to a patient have to don full PPE for each patient. This is an added cost burden on the patient as the PPE are imported and expensive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Solanki also said the few private so-called COVID-19 hospitals had opened with inadequate staff and poor protocols and charge upfront admission fees of between US$3 000 and US$5 000.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a major dilemma for patients who may not all be able to afford this cost from the private COVID-19 hospitals and lack of human capacity at the State hospitals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Solanki said he did not admit COVID-19 patients, but managed them on an outpatient basis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GOVERNMENT has ordered medical facilities to take in patients who do not have COVID-19 test results, amid concerns by health workers that the move would expose them to infection. Public and private medical facilities had lately resorted to demanding COVID-19 results before admitting patients as infection rates among health service providers increase. They argued that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":24843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1361,7],"tags":[1388,693],"class_list":{"0":"post-26101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-coronavirus-in-zimbabwe","9":"category-files","10":"tag-covid-19","11":"tag-mutsvangwa"},"yoast_head":"\n