Nurses demand safety assurance from police
MBABANE – Nurses at the Mbabane Government Hospital are demanding a guarantee letter assuring their safety and protection from the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS).
Through the Unit Committee, nurses petitioned the National Commissioner of Police, William Tsitsibala Dlamini, yesterday morning.
They gave the NATCOM 24 hours to respond to their concerns, adding that failure to meet their demands would result in other means being used for their voice to be heard.
The petition was received by Assistant Commissioner Wendy Hleta on behalf of NATCOM. She stated that she would pass it over to the office of NATCOM. Receiving it on behalf of the Ministry of Health was Director Dr Vusi Magagula, who promised an appropriate response soon.
Harassment
Delivering the petition was Sanele Gwebu, who read it on behalf of the Secretary Sandile Mlotsa and said they had observed harassment of nurses when reporting for and from duty, especially after hours (curfew) despite presenting proof of being an essential service provider.
Gwebu said recently, they had seen these essential service providers being shot and tear-gased during a protest action.
He questioned the security personnel on who would attend to their health needs if they allegedly killed such people, including nurses.
Recently, he said on October 20, 2021, they had seen the police allegedly shooting nurses and firing tear gas at nurses’ homes and the hospital. Gwebu asked whether the security personnel were considerate of the welfare of the nurses, their children and the admitted patients.
Petitioned
Meanwhile, they also petitioned their ministry concerning work related issues at the hospital.
Gwebu said following a nurses’ meeting held last week (October 27, 2021) over concerns including the unavailability of patients’ meals (inadequate in some days), the shortage of drugs and medical, the unavailability of staff transport at Mbabane Government Hospital, they resolved to petition the ministry.
He mentioned that they had observed that patients had been without food or were being fed unbalanced meals and often inadequate whenever available since October 7, 2021.
Gwebu stated that they would like to remind the ministry that medication worked best in a full stomach for speedy recovery.
He noted that they had noticed that patients were served tea only without sugar and bread, sour and thin porridge without sugar. Despite engaging the hospital management, he said they had not seen any changes in the patients’ diet.
According to Gwebu, there was an ongoing stock out of drugs and other supplies in the hospital which had been going on for months now, forcing the health personnel to improvise so as to assist and help patients.
Gwebu asked that drugs and equipment be provided to the hospital for proper and efficient service delivery.
This matter, he stated, had been reported several times but seemed to be falling on deaf ears as the situation had gone from bad to worse.
He stated that this brought them to the question on why they were still running the hospitals when the necessary drugs and equipment was out of stock.
This, he stated, was giving false hope to the patients. Further, he questioned on whether they were doing justice to the patients and themselves.
Transport
Also, he highlighted the issue of staff transport, adding that the unavailability of transport was worrisome.
He said employees struggled to report for duty as it was repeatedly reported that there was no staff transport.
However, Gwebu noted that the unavailable transport was instead seen running errands. He asked if this meant that the staff members were not important.
He said when knocking-off after hours, staff became stranded and those coming in were not attended to.
Gwebu said the transport they ought to use often had mechanical faults and of late fuel was scarce, wondering why a huge facility like Mbabane Government Hospital, which was a National Referral Hospital, could be deprived of transport.