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Image: Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters
- Health workers expressed anger and disappointment after waiting for hours to receive the blow from J&J at Steve Biko Hospital.
- Gauteng Prime Minister David Makhura and the hospital’s executive director, Dr. Mathabo Mathebula, were vaccinated at the site on Wednesday.
- Doctors also complained about an ineffective reservation system and the late arrival of vaccine doses.
The weekend leg of the Johnson & Johnson vaccination drive left hundreds of doctors and nurses frustrated Sunday as they waited for hours at Steve Biko Hospital in Pretoria.
Dr. Grace Kay-Eddie, pulmonologist said:
No one can give a clear answer. There is no plan … if you can’t deal with a few thousand healthcare professionals, imagine what the rollout will be like for the rest of the South African population. This is an absolute disaster.
Gauteng has two vaccination sites: the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital and the Steve Biko Academic Hospital.
However, Baragwanath was closed for the weekend.
Health department spokesman Motaletale Modiba told News24 that the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital was not intended to serve private doctors this weekend.
“There was no planned operation [for] this first weekend. However, they are now increasing their capacity, anticipating more people from tomorrow. “
Kay-Eddie told News24 on Sunday that he first booked on the online booking system on February 3, but had not received an invitation to receive the jab.
She decided to check in again on Saturday and then received a text message directing her to Steve Biko Hospital.
He said he arrived very early Sunday morning and joined others who were already there.
“The queue snaked through two floors, with another long queue on the ground floor, leading to the parking lot outside the hospital. We waited and waited for our turn, for hours. My problem is why the nurses, the doctors and cleaners were not there who work in the ICU and who care for patients with Covid-19, do they have priority?
“I don’t see why pediatricians and ophthalmologists should be first in line. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Doctors waiting to receive the Johnson vaccine. This is the crowd outside the hospital. Not even beyond the front door. Social distancing? This exercise is going to kill one of us! pic.twitter.com/AZ7fYbH6Tp
– DrSteven (@DrStevenZA) February 21, 2021
Another doctor, Dr. Anneke du Toit, who is stationed in Pretoria, wrote in an email to News24:
“Total chaos at Steve Biko for vaccinations. Vaccinations were late, regardless of appointment times. Despite an appointment system, it’s total chaos, with doctors who had appointments in Baragwanath also arriving … Queues everywhere … an absolute disaster. ”
Gauteng Prime Minister David Makhura and Hospital Executive Director Steve Biko Dr. Mathabo Mathebula received their blows, along with the first healthcare workers, at the facility on Wednesday, the first day of the launch of the vaccination for health professionals.
The confusion and disorder at Steve Biko Hospital this weekend is a far cry from Makhura’s highly publicized event a few days ago.
READ | Vaccine launch: ‘Preventing corruption is something we must ensure’ – Makhura
In a statement issued Sunday afternoon after the uproar, Gauteng Health MEC’s Dr. Nomathemba Mokgethi assured health workers in the province that none of them will be excluded from the national vaccination program.
“We want to assure our healthcare workers that there is no need to panic as none of them will be left behind. To do so would be catastrophic and would leave the system exposed as they are an integral part of the healthcare system,” he said. in a statement Sunday.
He said the province has received 16,800 doses of Johnson & Johnson, which are currently administered at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital (11,080 doses) and Steve Biko Academic Hospital (5,720 doses).
Mokgethi says that, as of February 20, 2,134 health workers were vaccinated, including organized union leaders, who are also health professionals.
“The demand for vaccination has been on the rise since this program began. We will continue to involve other stakeholders as we are all aware that the fight against Covid-19 is far from over and requires a collective effort,” he added.
The department also called on all healthcare workers, who have not yet registered with the Electronic Vaccine Data System (EVDS), to do so to ensure that more people are vaccinated. He said the department would help manage the flow of traffic to vaccination sites and “avoid a situation where people just show up when they don’t have an appointment.”
Meanwhile, in KwaZulu-Natal, Prime Minister Sihle Zikalala said that at least 1,279 health professionals had been vaccinated so far.
The province’s vaccination sites are at Prince Mshiyeni Memorial and Albert Luthuli Hospitals in Durban.
“We think this is a good start and we would like to see these [vaccination] increasing numbers. We remain committed to ensuring that all health workers in the province are vaccinated, “Zikalala said during a briefing on Sunday, accompanied by Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu.
Simelane-Zulu said she was aware that general practitioners in the province had complained, via emails and on social media, that they had been denied vaccination. She said this was not true.
“We need to correct that … it is unfortunate that people we consider important, as physicians, sell such falsehoods. Before any arrangements could be made to make vaccines available to people in catchment areas, general practitioners of other areas flocked to those areas.
“On Friday, the deputy director general of clinical services met with the doctors and it was agreed that they will provide a list of GPs in the catchment areas to make sure they get vaccinated,” he said.
A group of general practitioners in KwaZulu-Natal had complained that Simelane-Zulu refused to talk to them about vaccines and that hospitals were rejecting them.
-Additional reporting: Canny Maphanga
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