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The privately run Mediclinic in Limpopo moved to allay fears that he was careless in communicating information about Covid-19 from his hospital in Polokwane.
This follows concerns raised anonymously by senior provincial health officials that the hospital administration was not following the guidelines and procedures for reporting Covid-19.
Last week a meeting was held between management and health officials.
Mediclinic’s clinical director, Dr. Stefanus Smuts, agreed that there were initially “slight delays.” However, the matter has been quickly resolved.
“To facilitate reporting, the Limpopo Health Department has provided a standard reporting template, which the infection prevention and control manager completes once a day.
“While initial reports were slightly delayed on weekends, these issues were quickly resolved,” Smuts said.
Smuts said they currently enjoy an open relationship with the Limpopo health department and that they are in direct personal contact should information be requested from either party.
Although he did not provide statistics, Smuts said the hospital has conducted numerous screening tests and tests on members of the public. He said that so far there have been no positive results in the hospital.
He said that health workers at the facilities are performing their duties under policies and procedures developed to prevent exposure and infection.
Provincial health officials’ concerns followed the first reported death in Limpopo at Netcare Pholoso private hospital. The 69-year-old retired lawyer, who is also said to have an underlying illness, died a week ago.
Another death was reported in the Sekhukhuneo district of a 55-year-old man. He died in surgery by a private doctor, where he was rushed after his condition worsened.
It was determined through autopsy that he died of Covid-19. The surgery has been closed since then.
Dr. Phophi Ramathuba of MEC Health said the man had been working in Cape Town in the film industry and that his son took him to Limpopo when he fell ill.
While at his home in Sekhukhune, his condition worsened and he was taken to a private medical consultation room where he died, Ramathuba said.
Addressing the media, Ramathuba also claimed that some political parties were instigating stigmatization and harassment of people who tested positive for Covid-19.
This was after a woman whose husband died of Covid-19, and later tested positive, was seen in a busy shopping center in Lebowakgomo.
At that time, the district attorney convicted Ramathuba for the alleged lack of consistency and transparency in the application of sanitary regulations regarding self-isolation.
In the past, two doctors, who were self-isolating, were forcibly taken to a quarantine site in Modimolle.
Since then, the Limpopo High Court ordered their release from the site, and they have now been found to be negative.
Ramathuba said: “In Lebowakgomo, we have seen communities mobilize and some political parties instigate communities to rise up against an elderly woman who tested positive after the death of her husband.”
But DA provincial leader Jacque Smalle said: “We believe it is important to treat all cases, without exception, in accordance with the prescriptions of the closure regulations.”
However, Ramathuba said that local transmission of Covid-19 was not the challenge: “Inter-provincial transmission remains a problem. As factories will open at 50%, we will see that many travel through the provinces, which will be high risk”.
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