Mozambique: Maputo Central Hospital running out of Covid-19 beds

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Mozambique: Maputo Central Hospital running out of Covid-19 beds

5:31 CAT | 09 Jul 2021

Photo: O País

Maputo Central Hospital (HCM), the largest health unit in Mozambique, has run out of space to accommodate more patients suffering from the Covid-19 respiratory disease, according to a Friday report carried by the independent television station STV.

The HCM clinical director, Farida Ursi, told STV that the transit ward used for Covid-19 patients has the capacity for 40 beds, all of which are occupied. A tent was erected on the hospital grounds which can take ten beds, and they too are all occupied.

“We had to add another three beds”, said Ursi, but she saw no possibility of squeezing in any more patients.

The only alternative is to transfer patients to the two other health units in the city which treat Covid-19 cases, the Mavalane and Polana-Canico General Hospitals. “Today we shall divide the patients into groups that we can transfer to Mavalane or Polana-Canico depending on the seriousness of their condition, and the availability of beds in those hospitals”.

She stressed that it is not possible to accommodate Covid-19 patients on the hospital floor. “We are doing all in our power to provide humanised and good quality care”, she said.

The HCM blood bank is also in difficulty. The number of blood donors has fallen in recent weeks, and Ursi thought they may be avoiding the hospital out of fear of Covid-19. Within the next week, the hospital risks running out of blood “which means that some patients with acute anaemia may die”, she said.

Ursi urged people with minor complaints not to add to the congestion at the HCM, but to seek treatment at the outlying health posts and centres.

Every day, more people with Covid-19 are admitted to the country’s hospitals than are discharged. Thus on Thursday 16 Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospital, but 51 new patients were admitted, over half of them in Maputo.

On Wednesday, Health Minister Armindo Tiago warned that the “third wave” of coronavirus infection is pushing Mozambique into a “dramatic situation”.

“Our capacity to hospitalise patients and to provide oxygen for them could become exhausted in some provinces”, he said. At particular risk were Maputo city and province, and the central provinces of Tete, Manica and Sofala.

Tiago stressed it is imperative and urgent to improve implementation of the preventive measures to restrict the spread of the virus. “This is the only way we can avoid the worst consequences of the third wave”, he declared.

Source: AIM