Covid-19: Largest hospital in Mozambique overwhelmed by “enormous burden” – Lusa

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Covid-19: Largest hospital in Mozambique overwhelmed by “enormous burden” – Lusa

3:28 CAT | 27 Nov 2020

Maputo Central Hospital (HCM), Mozambique’s largest health unit, is complaining of an “enormous burden” as a result of Covid-19, warning that “more health professionals are needed”.

“Covid-19 has involved a lot of reinvention and renovation in the way we work, as well as presenting an enormous burden for health professionals and a huge use of the resources available to us,” HCM Director-General Mouzinho Saíde has said.

Speaking on the sidelines of the hospital’s first General Council in Maputo, Saíde said the new coronavirus had forced HCM to “redouble” efforts to provide services appropriate to the pandemic, as well as strengthening teams and improving infrastructure.

Saíde said that everything was multiplied “several times” – the use of devices, of personal protective equipment and the demand for other resources.

Saide also highlighted a lack of human resources and deficient infrastructure as pressing challenges, with budget constraints contributing to the lack of health professionals.

“Human resources still need improvement; we need more doctors and nurses, for example. The ambition is there, but the budget is restricted. Even if we make a plan, it will not be 100% approved because of budget constraints,” Nico Bernardo, head of HCM’s Central Planning and Statistics department, added.

“There are several specialties that have only one doctor,” for all the patients in the hospital, he complained.

One death and 220 infected so far

A total of 220 health professionals at HCM have already been infected with Covid-19 and one has died of the disease, Bernardo said, explaining that, at the moment, “twenty [HCM workers] are still active cases”.

Bernardo said that HCM has tested about 7,000 people since the pandemic broke out in March, performing an average of 10 to 20 tests a day, of which approximately 2,500 came back positive for Covid-19.

“[Over time], testing capacity has tripled because of demand. At the beginning, people were afraid to know the result, but with the appearance of mass screening in the context of active surveillance, the situation has changed,” he said.

Since the announcement of the first case and by this Friday (November 27), the coronavirus has infected a total of 15,506 people, of whom 128 have died and 13,631 are reported to have fully recovered. Active cases currently stand at 1,743.