Netcare Hospitals, especially in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape are experiencing significant demand from Covid patients who need treatment.
The Managing Director for the Netcare Hospital division Jacques Du Plessis says it is understandable that the public is concerned about hospital capacity but assured the public that not all Covid-19 patients require critical care in ICU and not every patient will need to be put on a ventilator.
Du Plessis says at the moment, they do have space for Covid patients and other patients in their general wards.
He says the situation remains extremely fluid and they do expect demand to escalate further in the coming weeks.
Du Plessis says they are constantly assessing patients' demand for hospitalisation to manage their resources effectively.
He gave the assurance that contingency measures were in place if the hospital should have a critical shortage of staff due to Covid-19.
In such an event a hospital will temporarily be placed on "divert" where patients will be transported to one of the facilities that would be able to accommodate them.
Emergency medical care will always be provided to any person who presents at an emergency department with a life-threatening injury or condition.
