Services slowly resume at themba Hospital
KABOKWENI - What started last Tuesday, April 2, as a peaceful protest about service delivery, crime, corruption and business opportunities, soon escalated into a volatile and uncontrollable situation, leaving hundreds of citizens without access to healthcare services at Themba Hospital.
The protest, led by some community members and a group known as the Local Business Forum, saw members of the forum trying to get the attention of the hospital CEO and the board. The forum wanted the board to be disbanded, and demanded equal employment and business opportunities at the hospital. They also demanded transparency when nursing students to be trained at the Mpumalanga Nursing College next to the hospital are shortlisted and recruited.
Another issue raised by the forum was the ever-increasing crime rate in the Nsikazi area, especially KaBokweni, where hijacking incidents are said to have drastically gone up.
The forum also called for the revitalisation of the old Kangwane factories situated in this area.
However, things took a different path on Thursday April 4, when the group allegedly got into the hospital and assaulted some doctors and nurses.
With the situation seemingly getting out of hand, the police had to step in and managed to intervene and disperse the crowd.
The alleged assault, however, did not go down well for either the healthcare workers or their unions, which had instructed them not to report for duty until it was safe to do so. Services at the hospital, which had already been operating on ghost staff since Tuesday, came to a complete halt on Thursday and throughout the weekend. Patients had to be turned back without help, while those already admitted and housed in wards had to rely on their families for food and even aspirin for minor pains and fever.
“I was due to go to Pretoria, Steve Biko
Hospital, to see specialists, but only to be told this hospital that referred us there isn’t working, and we were told to go back home instead. I personally don’t know what I am going to do now, and it is quite a long process to get an appointment to see the specialists in Pretoria,” said Nomsa Kunene, who had to turn back and go home without being helped.
The hospital closure prompted the Mpumalanga premier, Refilwe MtshweniTsipane, and the MEC for health, Sasekani Manzini, to convene a quick meeting with the hospital management, health unions and members of the business forum in a bid to find amicable solutions to this debacle.
All the parties involved met at the hospital on Monday April 8, where afterwards, Mtshweni-Tsipane told the media that they had deliberated on a number of issues with the safety of both workers and patients taking priority. “Security and the safety of our workers and patients are important. We have already done the risk assessments, which point out to the areas where we need to beef up security to ensure that such incidents do not happen again in our institutions and facilities in the future,” she said. “We have addressed the security issue, and now we need to interface and engage with the community who have raised concerns as well. We had interactions with the management of the hospital today; we have always been in contact with them and the labour unions. We have also seen the patients. We need to engage with the concerned community group around this area, because there is no point for us to deal with the symptoms, but neglect the primary source of our trouble.”
The forum’s spokesperson, Majaheni Nyalunga, has since issued a public apology for the assault on the healthcare workers, saying it was unfortunate that the hospital had to stop services because of this.
By the time going to press, the hospital’s services were said to be slowly resuming, but still under heavy police and private security guard.