SAVING LIVES WITH NO STAFF, EQUIPMENT
MATERNITY nurses at a North West clinic deliver babies in the dark and badly injured patients are sent away because of a shortage of nurses.
Nurses, who asked not to be named, told Sowetan working at the Tlakgameng health centre near Ganyesa was a nightmare. On weekends, the centre operates with only one professional nurse.
“This past Saturday one patient died because of this shortage. A nurse was busy helping out at the maternity ward and we had a man with a bad stab wound, unfortunately he died on his way to the hospital,” one said.
The centre does not have hot water or sterilisers and has only one oxygen cylinder.
Most of the light bulbs are not working, and only one toilet is functioning, with about 300 patients visiting the clinic daily.
Assistant nurses are forced to give patients injections and help deliver babies.
“Assistant nurses are supposed to do vitals [checking blood pressure, breathing, pulse and temperature] only, but here they give injections and help deliver babies,” the nurses said.
They said most of the time they are not sure if the equipment they use is properly sterilised.
“We use brushes and wash the delivery packs ourselves when we need infection control because there is no hot water so maternity patients cannot take a bath,” a nurse said.
The health centre is supposed to have 12 professional nurses, but only has five.
“We sometimes work for 24 hours because of the shortage of nurses. You can find one nurse working in three departments,” complained the nurse.
Another nurse, who recently delivered a baby, said it was not easy.
The nurse showed Sowetan the old equipment she used to help patients deliver their babies.
“The episiotomy scissors are blunt. There is not enough light to see so that I cannot endanger the patient, and we can only thank God for a smooth delivery.
“There are also not enough maternity dresses for patients.”