‘Dora Nginza not shut down’
Patient transfers an operational arrangement
THE Eastern Cape Health Department denied yesterday that Dora Nginza Hospital was shut down at the weekend because doctors refused to work overtime.
Despite patients being transferred to Livingstone Hospital, health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said it was only an “internal operational arrangement”.
But Kupelo admitted the department had no money to hire new doctors.
“The process [of hiring new doctors] is being monitored by the provincial Treasury. Those doctors who say we are not hiring should conduct interviews and hire new doctors if they have the budget,” Kupelo said.
He said no one had the authority to shut down a hospital ex- cept Health MEC Sicelo Gqobana.
“The MEC has issued no such order. The issue of shortage of beds is not true. It is not patients who sleep at the casualty wards but people who are accompanying them to the hospitals.
“They are not sick. They are not our patients but we cannot chase people away because at night there are no taxis and they cannot afford bed and breakfast establishments.”
Asked how many doctors they would employ, Kupelo said: “I do not want to interfere with internal operations. Management should be given space to operate.”
A Livingstone Hospital nurse, who did not want to be named, criticised the department for not hiring more doctors.
“All they do is hire these top brass consultants who sit in their offices and do nothing. They should be hiring more doctors,” she said.
Kupelo also took a swing at hospital managers.
“Instead of addressing the problems they go public and complain. I find it strange that they are the ones who take decisions today and complain about them tomorrow,” he said.
Staff shortages have dogged the hospital complex for a long time. In June doctors defied orders from the department and spoke out against the crippling shortage at the complex.
The PE Complex is made up of the Dora Nginza and Livingstone hospitals.
Last month the Port Elizabeth Labour Court ruled in favour of six Livingstone Hospital surgeons who sued the department over excessive working hours.
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