Sanco fights for Bara employees
‘Hire more nurses, doctors, cleaners’
A civic organisation has called on the Gauteng government to hir e mo re staff member s at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital or face the wrath of the masses.
Yesterday, members of the SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco) held a peaceful protest outside the hospital in Diepkloof, Soweto, in support of the plight of hospital staff.
Provincial Sanco chairperson Chris Malatjane said they were there because the department continued to ignore requests to resol vep roblems at the hospital.
“We are saying to government, this must come to an end. We want to see doctors and nurses hired in numbers. We want to see more security,” Malatjane said.
He said Bara needed a bigger budget as it also provided academic training and healthcare for peoplefrom the SADC region.
He said it was disturbing that peopl ewe re dying at the facility because doctors were overworked.
Marcher s he l d up p lacards with messages of support and demands.
Sanco deputy chairperson in the Johannesburg region Phashe Magagane read out the memorandum, giving the department 14 days to respond.
Magagane said they would mobilise all their branches to engage in a massive protest action should the department fail to resolve the issues.
“There should be an increase in the number of doc- tors, nurses, cleaners and porters in this hospital. We demand adequate medication to be supplied in this hospital,” Magagane said.
The same issues were raised during previous protests organised by labour unions, who called on government to save the facility from falling apart.
Pastor Paseka Mboro, who was among those supporting the protest, said staff needed the support of communities.
“People die in their hands because they are short-staffed. They are not well looked after. We must protest for them. We must be their mouthpiece.”
Head of hospital services in the province Dr Medupi Modisane received the memorandum on behal fofM EC Gwen Ramokgopa.