Imtiaz Sooliman – The Gift of the Givers has outlined what it would take to get Gauteng through the third wave
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The speakers discuss the potential for a hospital to reopen after COVID-19, emphasizing the success of the hospital and the importance of keeping patients out of harm's way. They also discuss the use of oxygen and the potential for super spread events in healthcare facilities, including the use of marijuana and the potential for COVID-19 cases to spread quickly. The speakers emphasize the need for leadership and leadership in the healthcare system to prevent deaths and improve patient care, while also noting the Hill Brown's hospital in 40% capacity and potential for hospital renovations to open more hospitals.
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Them and that legal entity and follow something else. Yes, the
hospital got burnt. We understand that, but did the whole hospital,
but part of it burnt. So can't we shut off the part of the hospital
and still open? They got fantastic. I mean, I was there two
weeks ago. I got a shock to see what a beautiful hospital this is.
You know, in your mind was, I haven't been in practice. I
haven't been in hospitals for a long time. Your mind, you think
it's a government hospital. It can't be. So. Graham, be so Glenn,
but this is an absolutely fantastic hospital. It's got 28
theaters. Not that we need theaters now for covid, 19, but
it's got fantastic ICUs for pediatric, for medical, for
surgical and for covid. All that is being wasted whilst patients
are floundering, not knowing where to go. We need somebody in the
government who has got a decision making process, who can take a
decision. There's a serious lack of leadership. How can you allow
people patients to be struggling when nobody can get together and
said, Look, we need to take a decision. Yes, the rule says they
will have this form and that paper and that certificate, but this is
an emergency. You know what? You can bypass all those things,
declaring rules that can bypass at the same time, making sure that
nobody's lives will be put at risk. And that can be done by
cutting out part of the hospital, even if two thirds are functional
or half is functional. It takes a huge burden of other hospitals.
Yeah, and it's about saving lives. MTS tell us about the kinds of
calls gift of the givers has been getting from family, from family
of people suffering from covid 19 desperate for oxygen canisters.
It's nothing new. We got that in the first wave, far more in the
second wave. But what has been frightening in the third wave is
that doctors are calling for oxygen, not patients. To that
extent, when doctors are saying, like in the last 48 hours, let's
put it this way, on Sunday, we got so many calls for oxygen
concentrators, so we asked, but you guys had oxygen concentrators
in the first and the second wave where they now the one guy said,
we've already used 140
and we weighed behind what we require. And this is a doctor, and
he says, we probably need another 500 to 1000
that's from one area of job. I get a call from other areas of Gauteng
to say, we use 100. Is they're not coming back. People are still
sick. We need another it's need another 40 or 50 more immediately.
And the similar cause comes from other parts of Gauteng to say, you
know, we are in serious trouble. So then doctors call. They say, We
are physicians. Can we put up the patients in a hall? So I said, Why
are you going to do that? They said, there's no hospital beds. So
I said, Are you going to take responsibility of this patient
after four o'clock in the afternoon? Are you going to be
there the whole night, and if there's not 110, or 14, are you
going to look after all those patients? The physician says, No,
I can't do that. So I said, then safer to leave them at home with
their families, and we can't bring families to the hall, because that
could become a super spread event. Unfortunately, some of the things
are not disciplined. So you know what? You could have a problem
where the super spreader events involved. So I said, What's the
requirement? They said, Look, we need oxygen in hospitals, but
there's no hospital to there's no beds, the casualties are full. All
we can do as physicians and GPS is go to people's homes. Now that's a
huge strain on healthcare personnel to go to people's homes.
It takes up a * of a lot of time, and especially when there's
so many patients and there's so many people, you can't be having
that kind of situation. You need to free the healthcare workers and
to put more staff into expend more hospitals. There is another
solution, obvious, by the way,
and this is if we can open Charles McKee partially. Look now what I'm
telling you, I've been to the hospital. I don't know the
engineering plan, but it looks quite clear that you can use quite
a part of the hospital. I'm not an engineer, but from what it seems,
it's fine for part of the hospital. Then I've been told by
staff who are working in Hill Brown hospital that the hospital
is only 40% capacity. What stops us from doing cosmetic
renovations, making it organized, even these innovations, put in
oxygen points, and they don't have it and open up more facilities in
Hill Brown we're taking the pressure off other hospitals. Then
the shocking news is, I've been told facilities were built in
marijuana, but they're not open. They're not being used, dedicated
for covid 19. I haven't seen those facilities, but I got information
from more than one source. Yeah, and the other point is, somebody
sent me a video of a hospital that was built in 96 in Campton Park.
It's never used. Apparently, it's vandalized. It's there for the
taking enough space. All it requires, again, is renovation.
Oxygen for covid. You need oxygen, points, beds and stuff that's
already required, nothing more than that. Yeah, and you know all,
and if there's ICU required, open up Charlotte McKey, we've got the
ICU facilities there, and you can move patients from these other
places to Charlotte McKee. I mean, what you know, it's, it's
difficult to understand from what you're describing, that government
hasn't described the situation in the same kind of panicked way that
you just have in tears. Is there real political will to make the
changes, to open the hospitals, to hire the staff, to do what's
needed?
I.
Can't say there's no political world. Look at a time whilst I'm
saying government is not doing the right thing at the same time,
there's a lot of good people in government who want the right
thing to be done. The problem is their own rules. They are caught
up in their own regulations. They don't know how to bypass their own
systems. Their systems are bogging them down, and they too. To the
left of the law. This is an emergency. Emergency means all the
rules are broken. You know, you do what is necessary to save life.
But of course, by taking due precaution, making sure the
structure is not going to fall on 50 patients in China's mechanical
space or whatever needs to be done, bring in more vertical
staff. Hire people calling from the public. We pray you for three
months, six months, whatever you know what we need to bring
personality. And the other great assets in covid 19 are paramedics.
Yeah, we put paramedics, 19 of them in Livingston hospital, and
they're working like machines. You all you need is someone to monitor
the oxygen and to see what's going on, and then you put to a position
so these things can be done, you know. So I'm not saying there's a
lack of political maybe there's anxiety, maybe there's fear, maybe
people are scared if something goes wrong, I'll take the fall.
No, I'll just look at the irresponsible one. But you need
leadership. Yeah, the government seriously needs to show
leadership, because not them, the citizens are suffering and they're
dying. Yeah, absolutely, lives are at stake. We need medical
professionals. We need oxygen concentrators. We need covid 19
beds. Imjea Suleman is the founder of gift of the givers. Thanks, as
always, for your time here on the am report.