A union, representing nurses at Netcare St Augustine's Hospital in Durban, says it received multiple complaints about the lack of protections for healthcare workers exposed to COVID-19 at work.
DENOSA says according to nurses, their immediate managers had refused to provide them with Personal Protective Equipment or PPE.
The hospital's Emergency Department had been shut down after 66 people at the facility tested positive for the virus, 48 of them, staff members.
DENOSA's Mandla Shabangu says nurses and other healthcare workers treating coronavirus patients, were told to use surgical masks when regulations stipulate that the N95 is the most effective mask for protection.
The Health Minister Zweli Mkhize says three coronavirus patients admitted to the Berea-based facility, died within 72 hours and seven of SA’s 13 fatalities were recorded in KZN.
He says they are now trying to trace those who might have come into contact with these patients.
Responding to questions about the alleged withholding of PPEs from nurses and other healthcare staff, Netcare's Group Medical Director Anchen Laubscher has denied the allegations.
He says staff members at St Augustine's are being provided with the appropriate protective equipment on an ongoing basis.
Laubscher says no hospital staff member has been asked to work without this.
Source: ECR
