ZENZELE KUHLASE, White River | Thursday
NURSES protesting against the shortage of medicine and equipment at Themba Hospital in Mpumalanga, are contravening regulations, warned health department spokesman Dumisani Mlangeni on Thursday.
The nurses have refused to wear uniforms since Tuesday and Mlangeni said that this contravened regulations that do not allow nurses out of uniform to treat patients.
“The department is going to deal with this issue comprehensively as nurses are not allowed to touch patients without wearing a uniform,” he said.
He declined to comment further on the nurses’ actions, saying that the hospital was already under investigation following a string of allegations of malpractice and negligence.
“We want to avoid making unnecessary promises until we’ve completed our study. Then we will comment,” he said.
The hospital, which is in KaBokweni near White River, is the second largest in the province.
South African Democratic Nursing Union (Sadnu) branch organiser Lawrence Ndlovu said the protest was meant to highlight government’s failure to provide basic necessities such as medicines, surgical gloves, X-Ray plates and files, stationery, cleaning materials and ‘sterile’ clothes for use in surgeries.
He said Sadnu first raised its concerns with provincial health authorities in May, but was ignored.
“They ignored our June deadline, so we will now refuse to wear uniforms and will embark on other protest actions until the government responds to our concerns. We cannot provide decent healthcare if we don’t have the necessary equipment,” said Ndlovu.
Nurses are also upset that the province has failed to pay medical staff a promised R45 travel and food allowance when transporting patients to hospitals in Gauteng.
Meanwhile, MEC Sibongile Manana has ordered an internal investigation into allegations of malpractice at the hospital, after three children were left brain-damaged after botched operations.
The probe was sparked by media reports after Felicia Maseko (4) was left retarded, deaf, partially blind and mute after nurses allegedly crushed her skull while using forceps during her birth in 1996.
The probe will also examine two other botched operations in 1996 that left Themba Methule and Zweli Bheki Mokoena brain-damaged quadriplegics. – African Eye News Service