Prominent Harare based doctor Norman Matara has claimed that both Parirenyatwa Hospital and Wilkins hospital refused to attend to a patient.
He posted on his Twitter account: 1. The argument that Wilkins Hospital has no capacity to continue acting as the main referral centre for suspected and confirmed COVID-19 cases has been put beyond reasonable doubt. Forget the Zororo saga, I make reference to two events that happened yesterday.
2. Patient seen at Pari isolation tent in the afternoon. Very sick, Temp 39.7, had dyspnea, saturating @80%, referred to Wilkins. City of Hre said no free ambulance. Pari can’t take him in, protocol is they cant take suspected infectious cases. Patient left for almost 6 hours.
Wilkins calls in the evening, say even if the pt was to walk or get private transport, they cant take him in since they have poor lighting. Eventually said they would send ambulance arnd 2000hrs.
3. Patient seen at Pari again.possible contact, works on the till at a local food outlet. Had respiratory symptoms, shortness of breathing, Flue symptoms, sore throat, uses public transport to go home, Wilkins just refused to take in pt, said its after 6, we have poor lighting.
City of Hre is refusing the UN protocol of diagnosis, saying gvt hospitals should treat, Gvt hospitals are saying we are not mandated, capacitated, or trained to manage infectious diseases. Patient is there and sick, and is caught in the middle.
As @SibandaSibbs puts it here the decision to have major tertiary hospitals like Pari referring serious cases to primary care centres like Wilkins was made without insight. IMO it queries the credentials of those who made such decisions