Mozambique: External consultations in any health facility cancelled; priority care established

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Mozambique: External consultations in any health facility cancelled; priority care established

3:07 CAT | 01 Apr 2020

Photo: O País

External consultations at central hospitals, health posts and health centres are cancelled indefinitely, and priority given to chronically ill patients, victims of road accidents or people with other types of urgent trauma, in addition to the follow-up premature and malnourished children.

Mozambique has four central hospitals: in Maputo, Beira, Quelimane and Nampula cities. These are reference health units, and are very busy on account of the specialised services they provide.

Speaking on Tuesday morning, Clinical Director of Nampula Central Hospital, Bainabo Sahal, gave details of the restrictive measures imposed by the Ministry of Health.

“As of March 30, we have restricted external consultations. We will continue to follow-up all chronic patients, such as those with hypertension, diabetes, HIV and AIDS, as they need regular monitoring. As for children, we are excepting neonatal consultations, premature children and, as we have a high number of children who do follow-up visits for malnutrition because there are some nutrients to be administered, some monitoring that we have to carry out in the health unit,” he explained.

Victims of road accidents or people with other types of trauma should seek emergency services at the emergency room.

Scheduled surgery where patients are not hospitalised has also been cancelled. “We are attending to cases that are hospitalised in the ward, and those that necessarily need to be hospitalised, such as emergencies”.

Visits to patients in Nampula Central Hospital will be limited to one hour, from 12:00 a.m. to 01:00 p.m., and only one visitor per patient will be permitted.

In a further effort to minimise overcrowding and contain the spread of the disease, doctors will be limited to a maximum of 10 consultations a day, for chronic patients only.

Speaking to our reporter by phone, National Director of Medical Assistance, Ussene Issi, notes that the restrictions mentioned above cover all health units, including health centres, and, until the restrictions were lifted, only those who have critical health conditions should go to hospital.

By Ricardo Machava

Source: O País