Times Of Swaziland: 26 RFM STAFFERS IN SELF-ISOLATION

26 RFM STAFFERS IN SELF-ISOLATION
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BY SIBUSISO ZWANE on 16/04/2020 07:24:00


MANZINI – The Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital is operating with 26 men
down and staff members support the call to close the facility.
This is because 26 staff members, including nurses and support staff members,
have been put in self-isolation.  This follows the fact that they were in direct
contact with patients who were later confirmed to be positive for COVID-19.
The patients include the woman who gave birth to twins last week and COVID-19
case number 15 in the country.
Positive
A source close to the matter said after the woman was confirmed to be positive,
a total of 24 workers, including nurses and support staff, were tested and put
in self-isolation for 14 days.
“Again, when the man, who is case number 15, was confirmed to be positive of
the virus, two workers, including his wife, were tested and put in
self-isolation,” the source said.
In that regard, the workers, especially nurses at the hospital, said they fully
support the call by their union, the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU),
to close the facility, fumigate all wards and departments and also test all the
staff members.
They said this was because currently, the ministry considered testing and
isolating staff members who had direct contact with a patient who had been
confirmed positive for coronavirus.
“The ministry disregards those who had indirect contact with the COVID-19
positive patient. This is regardless of the fact that those who had indirect
contact with the patient will be regarded as direct contacts if those who were
assisting the positive patient test positive,” the workers argued.
On the other hand, the Minister of Health, Lizzie Nkosi, said RFM Hospital,
especially the Maternity Ward, was decontaminated last week. She said the
decontamination was done after the woman who gave birth to twins was evacuated
to Lubombo Referral Hospital.
“The ward has been cleaned and is safe to use,” the minister said.
On top of that, the minister said all those who were in contact with the
COVID-19 positive woman, were screened and sent to self-isolate.
Furthermore, she said all the workers at RFM Hospital were being tested as the
teams work on contact-tracing.
In that regard, the minister said there was no reason to shutdown the hospital.
This publication also gathered that since some of the hospital’s nursing staff
was in self-isolation, government, through the Ministry of Health had deployed
five of the newly-hired nurses, to the facility.
Tracing
However, RFM Hospital Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Benjamin Simelane said they
needed more nurses because the ongoing contact- tracing might see more nurses
being put in self-isolation.
On another note, the CEO pleaded with their patients to be open to the medical
staff. For instance, he said if a patient had been tested by the Ministry of
Health for COVID-19, it meant that he/she had contact with a COVID-19 positive
person and that made him/her a suspected case.
He said such people should open up to the medical practitioners so that they
could protect themselves.
“I am aware that some people might be afraid to do so because of stigma
issues, but I encourage them to trust the health workers,” the CEO said.
SWADNU made the call for the RFM Hospital to be closed on Tuesday. It said after
being closed, the whole hospital should be fumigated, while staff members should
be tested for COVID-19 before the facility could be reopened.