Military team flies in to help fight health care crisis

More than 50 health care workers from the SA National Defence Force have been deployed to the Eastern Cape to bolster medical care in the wake of widespread chaos in the province’s health care system.

The group, who arrived on Sunday at the Army Support Base in Nelson Mandela Bay, included 35 military nurses, 12 doctors and five clinical associates.

With more than 30,000 people in the province having tested positive for Covid-19  — and hospitals in chaos — Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane conceded last week that the province needed help.

SA Military Health Services head surgeon-general Zola Dabula said with the rise of infections in the province — especially among health care workers — it was expected that the military would have to intervene and assist.

“The expectation is that, even as the pandemic gallops away, we still have not reached the apex and, consequently, the military will be required to give a hand,” Dabula said.

He said it was not easy to respond to all the calls for help as positive cases were rising across the country, with the SANDF also subjected to more and more positive cases.

Dabula said he would not be able to specify where his medical staff would be deployed but they would work to the parameters set by the department of health.

The medical personnel will be placed in 14 days’ isolation before beginning work.

Over the past few weeks, horror stories about public health care in the province have played out in the media.

At Dora Nginza, expectant mothers were waiting for up to 16 days for C-sections and family members had to provide food as staff embarked on a go-slow.

Livingstone Hospital’s passages were strewn with rubbish, bloodied bedsheets were not cleaned and a report showed that screening protocols were not being adequately followed.

In June, the Motherwell Community Health Centre’s doors were closed as staff protested after a colleague tested positive for Covid-19.

Staff protests also rocked the Uitenhage Provincial Hospital on numerous occasions, with the family of a Uitenhage man left devastated last week when they found the wrong body had been released to their undertakers and they had buried a stranger.

Speaking to the deployees, Dabula said: “You being the health warriors serving the brave, you should also be aware of the fact that besides treating and managing the sick and frail, you also need to educate the people of the Eastern Cape.

“The country is watching and I am watching.”

Mabuyane  said he welcomed the team from the SANDF as well as the army’s prompt response to his request for help.

“The team from our national defence force will join the teams [already working in the province] to implement our strategy to fight the virus.

“The Eastern Cape government is now focusing on a ward-based rapid response strategy to fight this virus in our province,” he said.

The military team will be deployed to hotspot areas in the various municipalities, including OR Tambo, the Buffalo City metro and the Nelson Mandela Bay metro.

Mabuyane’s spokesperson, Mvusiwekhaya Sicwetsha, said: “The provincial government will announce the specific hospitals the members will be deployed to for their daily operations.”