The hospital's intensive care unit , orthopaedic outpatient department and dental output patient department are empty of patients and health workers., adding “the closure of any unit means a disruption in services”.
Kupelo said 79 nurses and general staff members had been tested at the ICU, OOPD, DOPD and surgical outpatient department. An ICU nurse who spoke to the Dispatch on condition of anonymity, as they aren't allowed to speak to the media, said over 40 ICU nurses insisted the unit be closed on Monday, after a nurse tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday.She said the ICU nurses tested on Tuesday were at home in self-isolation.
Kupelo said: “No nurses were told to self-isolate, but they demanded self-isolation. Protocols don't allow massive testing and isolation like this.” One nurse said: “We had a patient who was positive and who died on May 14 at 9.50pm. Her corpse was only taken the following day, on May 15, after 2pm. Things continued as normal and no deep cleaning was done at all.
“The backlog of these results poses a threat to health workers at the hospital and to their families. They could come into contact with the virus unknowingly, and then take it home to their communities. It's proving to be difficult to work under these conditions.”
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