Toward the end of last year I was reading an article on disruption from Singularity University. The writer challenged businesses to think how they would respond if their customer base was suddenly lost. The challenge seemed to be based on climate change extremes and technological advances. It was a good article,  and I thought about it.

My hospital, Netcare Kingsway, is set in the lush coastal bush of a tall dune on the South Coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal. I thought that even with a significant rise in sea level we would not be affected. The dune is at least seventy metres above current sea level. 

So what could else cause me to lose my patients? The answer is clear four months into the new year: the economic and political chaos that has followed the Covid-19 pandemic. 

I have seen fewer patients during lockdown than the fingers on my surgeon hands. For one week in April, the Medical Centre (a building adjacent to the hospital housing over fifty doctors) in which I work was closed. It underwent a deep clean by professional cleaners brought in by our hospital management. This despite there not having been a patient or doctor or receptionist who works in the Medical Centre testing positive for Covid-19.

Since the deep clean a handful of doctors returned to consulting in the Medical Centre during the last week of lockdown. They were seeing a fraction of the number of patients they normally see. Seeing these patients during the pandemic is difficult with protocols in place to enforce social distancing, wearing of masks and visors as well as increased hand hygiene for all. With the adjoining hospital still closed we cannot use the laboratory or X-rays department to help us make diagnoses. Worse still, we cannot admit our patients for treatment, be it medical or surgical

The patients we have cared for feel that we, the doctors, have abandoned them. I have cared for over twenty three thousand individuals and families during  the two decades I have worked at Kingsway.

My last operation was on Easter Monday, over three weeks ago. Shortly after that the hospital was closed to contain a Covid-19 outbreak. My patient was a ninety-two-year-old lady who shattered her thigh bone. The theatre staff and I were in full PPE (personal protective equipment) to protect her and us from Covid-19. She was discharged from Kingsway last week. Her thigh bone was fixed and she did not get infected with the New Corona virus in hospital.

I am pleased lockdown has been lifted in phases. I am not sure if I will be able to send her flowers for her ninety-third birthday next week.

I believe that Netcare as a group has been proactive with policy and protocol before Covid-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation. Kingsway Hospital management has upped their game: they spent on more PPE, created more negative pressure ventilation cubicles, paid staff even though they are not working, converted a day ward of twelve beds into a Covid changeroom for staff, allocated only one patient to a cubicle even in three or four bed wards. This management team ran the hospital efficiently before Covid-19. Now they are risk managers as well, dealing with unimaginable crisis after crisis that has become the hallmark of this pandemic.

We have ongoing cleaning of the hospital including with an Ultraviolet Robot since we were closed to new admissions. We have emptied the hospital of all patients and closed the Medical Centre again from the end of April and have repeated the deep clean. We have trained staff and doctors in Covid-19 protocols. We have taken a team that has always cared and been cautious, and have made them better. 

All of us are dealing with all the unknowns of the Covid-19 pandemic. For us at Kingsway Hospital an additional unknown is when our hospital will be re-opened. We have lost a great part of what defines us as doctors.