MBABANE OPD CLOSURE: PATIENTS FLOCK TO RFM

MANZINI – Patients are now flocking to the RFM Hospital and the health facility, including healthcare workers, are not coping.

Well-placed sources at the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital said following the closure of the Out-patient Department (OPD) at Mbabane Government Hospital on Sunday, an influx of patients was noted at the health facility, which is under the Eswatini Nazarene Health Institutions (ENHI).

The insiders said this took place at a time when the healthcare workers were understaffed as some of them either tested positive for COVID-19 and were recovering or were in isolation awaiting their results.

Struggling

As a result, the sources said the healthcare workers were struggling as the number of patients they attended to per day had increased immensely.

“The most affected department is the COVID-19 section, where the patients are screened for the symptoms of the virus,” they said.

ENHI Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Benjamin Simelane said he was away and referred this publication to Dr Mbuso Sihlongonyane, who confirmed that they were experiencing an influx of patients at RFM Hospital.

Again, Dr Sihlongonyane said they were not really coping with the high number of patients, which they were experiencing these days. However, he mentioned that they were doing their level best to deal with the situation.

“Yes, we are under a lot of pressure and it came with the outbreak of COVID-19,” Dr Sihlongonyane said.

He further admitted that amid the  COVID-10 pandemic, they hardly operated with 100 per cent staff members as some of them also contracted the virus and were away.

On the other hand, the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) President, Bheki Mamba, said under the prevailing situation, people should try by all means to stay at home. He said they should approach a health facility if it was really necessary. 

Instead, he said those who needed medical attention should go to clinics first before approaching hospitals. In fact, he said procedurally, the health system should be setup in a way that patients went to clinics when they were sick and only went to a hospital after a recommendation from the nurses. 

The president of the nurses’ union also said government should open the new OPD at Mbabane Government Hospital so that patients would not travel from one city to another because that could spread the virus. 

 Prioritise

He emphasised that government should prioritise the opening of the OPD at Mbabane Government Hospital before it became a white elephant. 

Moreover, the leader of the nurses’ union also highlighted that they had noted with concern that the number of healthcare workers who were testing positive for COVID-19 were increasing rapidly these days. In fact, he said they were upset with the increase of COVID-19 transmission among healthcare workers, especially nurses.

He said this was because they had engaged government several times about the lack of PPE for healthcare workers in health facilities in the country and even petitioned the administration on same. It is worth noting that on top of that, the nurses’ union also took government to court over alleged lack of PPE for healthcare workers in health facilities. 

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