Mediclinic workers say the company is not taking responsibility for a Covid-19 outbreak at a Pretoria hospital
Mediclinic workers say that when nursing and support staff at one of the company’s Pretoria hospitals test positive for Covid-19, they are accused of catching it in taxis and shopping malls. This is despite allegedly inadequate controls to protect them amid an outbreak at the hospital.on the condition of anonymity, said they are blamed for contracting and spreading Covid-19 and accused of being “careless”. The private hospital company denies this.
According to Mediclinic spokesperson, Tertia Kruger, “less than 15% of our staff members [at Mediclinic Kloof] have tested positive for the virus”. With a staff complement of 456 workers, this means about 68 workers have been infected. The nursing assistant said she believes Mediclinic fumbled her case by failing to properly trace how she became infected. “The fact that they said I didn’t get it in the hospital was wrong, because now they don’t know where I got it.”
Kruger said Mediclinic does not tolerate “any racist behaviour whatsoever”. She also denied that management had blamed workers for contracting the virus. When dealing with patients under investigation, staff are given only a generic surgical mask and an apron, she said. The worker has comorbidities and is technically exempted from treating Covid-19 patients, but she says testing delays often mean she comes in contact with these patients.
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