All OK for Covid-19 patients at Thorngrove

Thandeka Moyo-Ndlovu, Health Reporter
THORNGROVE Infectious Diseases Hospital in Bulawayo has started admitting Covid-19 patients and has 20 oxygen points available.

The Bulawayo City Council-run facility opened its doors for mild to moderate patients on Saturday.

The 20-bed capacity at the hospital, added to 50 at the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH), brings to 70 the number of beds for Covid-19 patients at public health institutions in the city.

Thorngrove is one of the four designated Covid-19 centres in Bulawayo and the third to be fully operational after the one at UBH and another at the privately-run Mater Dei Hospital that has 12 beds.

The Old Bartley Memorial Block (BMB) that houses the Covid-19 block at UBH officially opened on December 3 last year, although about US$9 million is needed for its completion.

Since its opening last year, a total of 142 patients have been admitted and of those, 40 died and 102 were discharged. It has a capacity of 112 beds and up to 150 when the need arises.

Funding has stalled the opening of another facility, Ekusileni Medical Centre, which is still undergoing renovations.

Thorngrove has two patients admitted while BMB has 22 and officials say about four patients are admitted daily.

This development comes at a time when Bulawayo has a total of 430 active Covid-19 cases as of Monday. Since the outbreak of the disease in March last year, 1 075 Zimbabweans have died, with 176 dying in Bulawayo.

As of January 25, 2021, Zimbabwe, had recorded 31 646 confirmed cases and 22 877 recoveries.

Statistics from the Ministry of health and Child Care also show that as of Sunday, at 3PM, there were 244 hospitalised patients in the country and 18 were in intensive care units.

In an interview yesterday, council director of health services Dr Edwin Sibanda said the opening of Thorngrove has created space for mild to moderate Covid-19 patients.

He said the severe to critical patients will go to the BMB while asymptomatic residents can still go to Elangeni Training Center for isolation.

“In spite of all challenges and deficiencies, we have started admitting patients at the Thorngrove Hospital isolation ward as of Saturday. We moved patients to the isolation ward which I can say is almost complete in terms of renovations,” said Dr Sibanda.

“We had been using the children’s ward ever since the pandemic broke out and we admitted 52 and lost 3. The rest recovered last year. We intend to tell residents that Thorngrove is not a death trap, they can actually recover,” he said.

Dr Sibanda also said more resources were needed to ensure Thorngrove is complete and becomes an ideal Covid-19 centre.

“The male section does not have curtains that separate the beds and there is no privacy. The oxygen connections are consumables and we cannot use one connection twice. Our healthcare staff also need motivation as working during the pandemic feels like war as both the patient and the healthcare worker are at risk. We may need to motivate the staff as much as possible,” said Dr Sibanda.

Dr Sibanda emphasised the need for people to isolate correctly and to make use of Elangeni in case they have small or inadequate accommodation to protect others from Covid-19.

“Those that are lucky to be sick without symptoms are at Elangeni and it is better than a one-roomed house where infected people are choosing to isolate and spread the disease in communities.

They should be willing to go to Elangeni at no accommodation costs and therefore prevent and break the cycle of transmission of Covid-19,” said Dr Sibanda. He said it was important for people to realise that despite the different strains that have been detected in some countries, the transmission, symptoms and diagnosis of Covid-19 are still the same.

“Let’s stick to the basics because this virus like any virus will pass. It won’t be here with us forever. The preventive measures do not change. Wear masks appropriately and keep distance as advised. It spreads pretty much the same,” he added.