MSF has supported the Eastern Cape Department of Health in all three COVID-19 waves so far. During the second and third wave MSF has supported Livingstone hospital, specifically in the basement COVID-19 ward, which was developed during the first wave but not immediately opened due to a shortage of doctors and nurses to staff it. With MSF support the hospital was able to open the basement ward in the second wave. Patient numbers in this ward were low because further COVID-19 beds were available at the VW field hospital, which was also supported by MSF in the second wave. However, the field hospital was closed after the second wave and Livingstone was designated as the main COVID-19 referral hospital in the third wave, with the basement ward functioning as the hospital’s primary COVID-19 ward. Specialists working in Livingstone realized that there would be insufficient staff available to cope with the anticipated burden of COVID-19 patients, and subsequently reached out to MSF to ask if we could supplement their team. MSF agreed, and since 29 June MSF has supported the basement ward.
However, the failure of the DoH to support the basement ward with its own doctors has meant that the ward has not been able to function at the capacity that was envisaged and planned for, and at times this has threatened the entire hospital system, as it means the emergency department has become overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. MSF has borne witness to this disaster, and is well placed to call for urgent remedy.