Horror of SA health system is exposed
Nurses and community health workers get raped and assaulted by patients, they are overworked, have inadequate personal protective equipment and are so underpaid that they must moonlight to make ends meet, which affects their concentration levels and their ability to care for patients.
Chronic staff shortages mean 60-hour weeks — 15 more than the legally allowed 45 — and nurses sometimes work 24hour shifts.
At the bottom of the health workers’ food chain are the informal community health workers, CHW, who earn a paltry R3,500 a month. Their need to find other work to get by leaves them so tired they need to take sick leave just to get some sleep.
This shocking state of affairs was outlined in a report on inequality in the healthcare sector titled The Right to Dignified Healthcare Work, A Right to Dignified Healthcare for All, which was commissioned by civil society organisation Oxfam SA in collaboration with the Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union (YNITU).
The findings come as the healthcare system takes a massive new load with the coronavirus pandemic that has brought it close to total collapse, especially in the Eastern Cape. As health workers contract Covid-19 at an alarming rate, placing extra load on their already stretched colleagues, hospitals are battling to meet the demand for beds, resulting in patients sleeping on floors and benches.
Oxfam SA executive director Siphokazi Mthathi said: “The poor treatment of our health workers has compromised the quality of healthcare, resulting in a system ill-prepared for shocks such as Covid-19.”
The report was released on Tuesday and Oxfam SA spokesperson Asanda Ngoasheng said it had been sent to the department of health and to private healthcare providers.
Most of the poorly paid health workers are black women, the report found.
On gender-based violence (GBV) cases, the report found that out of 300 nurses interviewed in Thulamela, Limpopo, 85% reported experiencing violence at work.
“Groups particularly at risk appear to be psychiatric nurses who have reported being raped and physically attacked by unstable patients, including those with criminal backgrounds, as they are not permitted to medicate incoming patients for the first 72 hours after admission.”
Eastern Cape health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said that was not the case in this province.
“We don’t have cases of nurses being raped by patients, but we’ve had cases where a nurse was accused of raping a patient or an alleged patient-on-patient rape,” he said.
The report covered the period from 2015 to 2019. A total of 3,784 nurses in 80 public and private sector hospitals were surveyed with almost 30% reporting moonlighting.
Most moonlighting nurses were in the private sector because those employed by the government were “less inclined to disclose this practice”.
“The study further revealed that 51.5% of moonlighting nurses felt too tired to work, 12% experienced reduced concentration while on nursing duty and 10.9% reported taking sick leave without being unwell. “A total of 160 CHW use moonlighting as well as child grants as survival strategies to supplement their low pay.
“This not only affects the personal welfare of nurses and CHW, but also their ability to provide safe patient care when on duty.”
YNITU deputy president Dikolomela-Lengene said the notion that nurses were lazy and dragged their feet at work was untrue, saying severe staff
Chronic staff shortages mean 60-hour weeks — 15 more than the legally allowed 45
shortages resulted in them being overworked.
“Community healthcare workers too are put under enormous strain as they are often left without adequate protection equipment, making them susceptible to communicable diseases, which poses a problem for us because we are not insured for occupational hazards and we do not have medical aid. Therefore our lives are in danger and in turn endangering the lives of the people we are working with.”
In a joint media statement Oxfam SA, YNITU, the National Union of Public Service & Allied Workers, National Union of Care Workers of SA, Treatment Action Campaign and Saftu said: “Private healthcare facilities exclude most of the black population. This profit-driven private healthcare sector has been financially supported all the while through medical tax credits that serve a few.”
Life Healthcare Group provincial spokesperson Ailsa Gouws said they would be able to comment by Wednesday afternoon.