The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
PROFESSOR Solwayo Ngwenya is a worried man. For months, the acting chief executive officer at Mpilo Hospital has been viewed by many as a prophet of doom. He has sparred on social media with laymen who dispute his assertions and has taken jabs from journalists who believe he spreads alarm unnecessarily.
After such a long time of preaching to a choir that refuses to be converted, the doom that the professor was prophesying seemed to have finally arrived when the Government announced a fresh lockdown at the start of the year.
Whispers of a new, more transmittable strain and a spike in the death and infection rates convinced authorities to act. The travelling, merrymaking and joy of the festive season had been followed swiftly by tears and sorrow in the new year, just as the professor had warned before the party began.
As a new normal under this covid19 pandemic,Mpilo Central Hospital nurses are regulary sanitising as they move from ward to ward.(Pictures:Eliah Saushoma)
A month into a new lockdown, the curve is flattening with the number of tests coming back positive is decreasing.
But Professor Solwayo is still a worried man. If infections spike up again, he fears that the biggest referral hospital in the southern half of the country might not be able to handle an influx of patients.
“At the moment we are managing to cope…we haven’t got a storm. In a storm we would not cope, that one I don’t want to lie to you. Most of the workers would be sick or away and isolating.
The resources are not there. We are even struggling before we get there. Imagine if 200 people showed up today. I would not be able to cope and on that one I would not lie to you,” he told Sunday News when it visited the hospital recently.
As a new normal under this covid19 pandemic,Mpilo Central Hospital general hand staff are regulary cleaning wards at short intervals in bid to protect people againts the pandemic.(Pictures:Eliah Saushoma)
If things were to go bad suddenly, as they are prone to do with this pandemic, Prof Solwayo says doctors, nurses and even grave diggers will find themselves working longer hours.
“So, at the moment we are coping yes because the virus is brewing itself in the community and spreading silently and so forth. The moment that it erupts, even the grave diggers would not cope, the funeral parlours would not cope,” he said.
On the surface, everything looks pretty normal at Mpilo. Sure, like everywhere else these days, every entrance is guarded by eagle eyed health professionals, armed with sanitisers that squirt a liquid that could be the difference between life and death into anyone that walks into the institution.
MASK UP AND SANITISE…As a new normal under this covid19 pandemic,Mpilo Central Hospital staff sanitise averyone entering the wards.(Pictures:Eliah Saushoma)
Cleaners mop floors diligently and nurses rush about the corridors confidently. Throughout the commotion of a normal Wednesday morning, many do not seem to show obvious concern about the gloom brought about by Covid-19. As people walk the corridors, they make sure to do so at a safe distance from everyone else. At Mpilo Hospital, Covid-19’s shadow has taught everyone a new, healthy distrust for the next person.
“At first, we were scared,” says the hospital’s public relations officer Mrs Sanelisiwe Nyamambi.
“People were uneasy about working in the first few weeks when we had the virus but now everyone is just used to it. It’s now normal. As you can see, everyone is going about their business as they would normally do.”
As Covid-19 storm clouds gathered last year, telecommunications giants TelOne and NetOne renovated two wards.
From the bedding and linen to the monitors which that medical detect patients’ blood pressure and temperature, everything seems to be top of the range. While Professor Solwayo is concerned about being overwhelmed with patients who feel “like an elephant is sitting on their chests” the wards are relatively empty save for one or two patients. In one bed lies a bible, left perhaps by a patient hopping a combination of faith and medicine will help in their healing.
In another ward, which is also nearly empty, Mrs Nyamambi has a few pleasant exchanges with a female patient who is clearly in pain.
“Malukazana go home, you have recovered, you should go home and cook isitshwala for the kids,” she says.
The patient can barely laugh and when she does, the laugh seems to die before it reaches her throat.
“I don’t think I can even handle a pot of isitshwala,” she says. “I don’t have the strength in me. I’m tired of the pain. I have had enough of the pain”
Despite the patient’s obvious pain and despair, Mrs Nyamambi maintains a bright cheerfulness in her voice. She is the ray of sunshine in a gloomy, lonely ward that only has a handful of patients.
“You will get better with time. You will be well soon.”
With all the focus on Covid-19, it is easy to forget that these patients, suffering from other ailments, need care and attention too. The Casualty Ward is where all potential patients gather. Night and day, it is always full. It is here where fear and risk of Covid-19 is greatest.
“We are not admitting any patients now. We are only looking at the serious cases, the emergencies. If you come here and you have a stomach ache or you have a bit of a headache you don’t get admitted unfortunately. The priority is people with serious ailments because we are always trying to decongest the place.
Casualty is the busiest. It’s always full no matter what time of the day it is. This is because it’s the port of call for everyone. Whether you’ve been in an accident or you’ve been stabbed you have to pass through casualty. That’s where everyone is processed,” Mrs Nyamambi says.
For nurses on the frontline, the fear of Covid-19 is always present. One nurse that spoke to Sunday News anonymously said two colleagues she has shared rooms with have tested positive for the virus, yet both times she came out negative.
Her greatest fear is taking the virus home with her when she knocks off work. In our line of work, it is impossible to tell who is infected or not. But when duty calls that does not even matter because you would have no choice. It gets worrying sometimes because we have kids at home and you have to go back to them after work and the fear of infecting them is always there.
“We practice the standard precautionary measures. We mask up, keep a pocket sanitiser and we just don’t touch unnecessarily people especially those with a cough or flue. Sometimes we run out of Personal Protective Equipment and that makes our working conditions harder. The hours are long and the work is hard but we know we are doing it for a good cause,” the nurse said.
