Health

1. (a)(b) See attached

2. Facilities are either closed for a short period of time or adjusts the patient flow so that the affected area can be decontaminated while service delivery continue and are reopened as soon as this process is concluded. Staff who were in close contact with a suspected or confirmed case are screened and if required asked to quarantine.

3. The Western Cape Government Health remains fully committed to the health and safety of all their health workers. The Department also understands and recognizes the anxiety of all health care workers as we face the unprecedented threat of this global pandemic. During this difficult time it remains really important that we take care of our health staff who need to take care of the most vulnerable sick people in our health system.

There are a number of interventions in place to ensure safety of the health workforce, since they are vital to manage the response to this pandemic. While it may not be possible to guarantee a zero risk to frontline staff, it is important that all efforts are made to ensure safety. This remains a partnership between management and staff.

Safety measures include the following:

Direct protection:

• There was an internal Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) workgroup established, with input from the top infectious disease specialists, Infection and Prevention control specialists and senior management in the Department, tasked to develop a range of policies and guidelines to guide safety practice at all facilities
• OHS practices were implemented everywhere, ranging from issuing  protective equipment to practices (in accordance with risk profiles), implementing measures to protect the families of staff members, to isolating (vulnerable) staff from the hazards where possible.

Indirect protection:

• Certain interventions changed the way we work by ensuring remote work where possible and also giving access to psycho-social support services via the Employee Wellness Programme and Leadership development programmes
• Communication – ensuring regular communication between staff and senior management including education and training opportunities for staff in safety practices.

A number of detailed and practical measures were put in place, including development of a risk assessment tool for vulnerable staff – which ensures that staff are “graded” according to their risk profile to be assigned to lower risk areas of work. Added to this is that vulnerable staff member were given, flu vaccinations to protect them. Another innovative action was the implementation of the Red Dot Taxi service, where healthcare workers can hail a taxi service to and from work, ensuring their safety, free of charge.

Another development, in the face of the pressure on our testing capacity, is the fact that tests and results for healthcare workers are prioritized. The Department would like to confirm that any healthcare worker who tests positive for COVID-19 will be allowed to isolate for 14 days.  (Close contacts who remain asymptomatic by day 7 will be asked to re-test, and if negative may safely return to work). While we do know the rate of infections in healthcare workers is growing, we remain encouraged that well over 50% are currently recovered.

We recognize that despite many measures in place, staff will still feel fearful and anxious at times. We urge them to make use of the following channels available to them.