• M Mendelson, L Booyens, A Boutall, L Cairncross, G Calligaro, J A Dave, S Dlamini, S Dyer, B Eick, K Fieggen, P Frankenfeld, J Hoare, R Hofmeyr, J Joska, I Joubert, R Krause, A Kropman, D Levin, D Maughan, G Meintjes, E Muller, N Ntusi, N Papavarnavas, B Patel, J Peter, P Raubenheimer, Q Said-Hartley, P Singh, S Wasserman, and On Behalf Of The Groote Schuur Hospital Covid-Response Team.
• Division of Infectious Diseases and HIV Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa; Department of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa. marc.mendelson@uct.ac.za.
• S. Afr. Med. J. 2020 Sep 7; 110 (10): 968-972.

AbstractThe SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has challenged the provision of healthcare in ways that are unprecedented in our lifetime. Planning for the sheer numbers expected during the surge has required public hospitals to de-escalate all non-essential clinical services to focus on COVID-19. Western Cape Province was the initial epicentre of the COVID-19 epidemic in South Africa (SA), and the Cape Town metro was its hardest-hit geographical region. We describe how we constructed our COVID-19 hospital-wide clinical service at Groote Schuur Hospital, the University of Cape Town's tertiary-level teaching hospital. By describing the barriers and enablers, we hope to provide guidance rather than a blueprint for hospitals elsewhere in SA and in low-resource countries that face similar challenges now or during subsequent waves.

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