Korle Bu doctor and nurse test positive for COVID-19

Two staff of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital have tested positive for Coronavirus.

The two are a nurse and a doctor who work at the Department of Medicine and Department of Child Health respectively, an internal communique sighted by otecNews indicated.

The two are currently being taken care of in the hospital and are responding to treatment.

“We wish to inform staff we are working to establish the primary source of the infections. Staff are therefore entreated to remain calm and follow the basic hygiene protocols.

Management is committed to ensuring that all staff are safe and protected. As we distribute PPEs to all departments, measures are far advanced to procure adequate protective gears for all staff,” the statement added.

Korle-Bu doctors threaten to withdraw services

These cases come in the wake of concerns from health workers about inadequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)  for health workers in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak in Ghana.

A few days ago, doctors at the Department of Accident and Emergency at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital expressed dissatisfaction with the level of preparedness of the department in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a Memo signed by the Doctors to their Head of Department and sighted by Citi News, they decried the usage of a sideward as an isolation centre without the necessary PPEs.

“We write to express our general dissatisfaction with the preparedness or lack thereof of the department to combat the current COVID-19 pandemic. We also wish to express our displeasure with the events surrounding the hospital’s first confirmed case.”

“Firstly, the pandemic; an existential threat to us, you will agree has to be handled with decisiveness and transparency. It is based on this that, we are aghast at the actions or inactions taken before, during and after the case had been confirmed.”

The said ward, according to the doctors hosted the first patient who tested positive at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.

They threatened to withdraw their services if a proper isolation centre is not provided and a quick testing of all staff of the department for Coronavirus is not done.

“We will like to remind management of the department that, it has failed woefully in providing adequate protection for the staff and as such, we’re left with little choice than to resort to protecting ourselves in the face of clear and present danger.

“We will like to state; with no fear of equivocation that, if these measures are not put in place, we will be forced to stop attending to patients to the endangerment of the patients, ourselves, our loved ones, and Ghana as a whole,” portions of the memo said.

Source: Ghana/otecfmghana.com