WOMEN DUE FOR DELIVERY DISCHARGED FOR FUMIGATION

MBABANE – Women due for delivery were prematurely discharged at the Mbabane Government Hospital to give way for fumigation.

Also affected were women who had just delivered their babies and were supposed to be under observation for a day. This comes after one patient, who had been admitted to one of the wards, tested positive for COVID-19. In an interview with some of the women, they confirmed that they had been requested by the management to seek assistance from other hospitals.

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They noted that they were referred to Mankayane Government Hospital or the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital in Manzini. Director of Health Services in the Ministry of Health Dr Vusi Magagula confirmed the matter, adding that a patient who tested positive for COVID-19 was identified at the maternity ward. Dr Magagula noted that the patient was also found to have another condition which was infectious, hence they needed to remove the other patients for safety issues and fumigate the ward.  The director noted that the hospital needed to take precautions following such a discovery as patients would all be endangered.

“The only solution was to remove all patients and fumigate the wards,” said Magagula. However, he mentioned that an emergency ward was receiving women who were already in labour.
Chief Executive Officer at RFM Hospital Benjamin Simelane confirmed that the hospital received an influx of pregnant women yesterday. Simelane said the maternity ward nurses were strained, but managed to cope. “No one was turned back,” he said in a brief interview. In terms of admission of the patients, he noted that they were all received and attended to. Simelane said the hospital had recently renovated the maternity ward and there was ample space in their original ward. Currently, he noted that the capacity of the ward took up to 15 patients, inclusive of those beds that were reserved for special attention.

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