Nurses at EC health facilities down tools

Nurses at two Eastern Cape health facilities downed tools on Monday, citing poor working conditions and a lack of transparency on Covid-19 infections.

Nurses at Settlers Hospital in Makhanda and their counterparts at Zihlahleni clinic near Dimbaza picketed outside the premises, raising awareness about their health and safety concerns.

Settlers nurse Nomalungisa Papu, 58, said staff feared for their lives after a “rapid” rise in coronavirus infections at the facility, but she could not provide a figure of how many had contracted the virus.

Papu is a Covid-19 survivor.

“I was the first person who tested positive at the casualty department. We are striking because many of us are infected with Covid-19. Two of our colleagues have died, and we were never told [that they had died from Covid-19 complications].

“If we hide this thing from the public and media there won’t be anything done about it.

“Our hospital management opened a ward [for Covid-19 patients] at the hospital the previous weekend and we were never informed about such plans. There is no medication or staff prepared for the patients, just one Cuban doctor for that ward,” she said.

Papu said the hospital was chronically understaffed, which sometimes resulted in only two nurses being on duty at the casualty ward.

She described some of the other wards as “very cold”.

“Nurses have to cover themselves with a blanket. It is like a mortuary. Patients are bathing in cold water or a patient must run around and look for water in another ward.

“The curtains have not been washed for six months. Our casualty unit has only one isolation room. The casualty ward has never been fumigated.”

Zihlahleni clinic chair Zamuxolo Matshaya said they wanted the clinic to be deepcleaned because three nurses had tested positive for the virus. They also want nine other staffers to be tested.

He said the clinic would remain closed until the “problems” had been solved.

Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA provincial secretary Khaya Sodidi said the protests were not isolated incidents, but he could not comment further until he had been briefed by his shop stewards.

Numerous attempts to speak to the provincial health department were fruitless by print deadline on Monday.

Superintendent-general Dr Thobile Mbengashe’s phone rang unanswered. MEC Sindiswa Gomba’s spokesperson Judy Ngoloyi read a WhatsApp message requesting comment but failed to comment. Department spokesperson Siyanda Manana did not respond to questions sent.

Patients are bathing in cold water or a patient must run around and look for water in another ward