Interventions at Dora Nginza not enough, staff say
Staff at Dora Nginza Hospital have expressed mixed feelings towards the interventions — or what some claim is a lack thereof — made this month by the department of health.
A nurse told The Herald the hospital was “setting people up for death”.
“Nothing has been done here and people will die.
“Just on Sunday there was a compressor problem and there was not provision of oxygen.”
Asked if there were other issues, she said: “We are still complaining about the PPE we are getting.
“The N95 masks we are getting now are not up to standard ... it cannot protect us from the virus because it is not air-tight.”
Another nurse said the issues had worsened since The Herald had written an article which laid bare the struggles of pregnant women at the hospital sleeping on the floors for up to 15 days.
“The few staff [have] tested positive [for Covid-19], which increases the shortage of staff we [were] already facing.
“And they never get people to fumigate the space we use even though they said it was procedure.
“Sanitisers are out of stock, which is the main thing we use,” she said.
Health department spokesperson Siyanda Manana hit back, saying claims of sanitiser shortages and substandard PPE were false.
A doctor in another ward, who also did not want to be named, said Dora Nginza had improved.
“I can see that on the ground things are better, the hospitals and the nurses are having a better workflow as surrounding facilities have been opened again and alleviated stress from our teams.”
But Nehawu regional spokesperson Sweetness Stokwe lambasted the interventions.
“They have all been publicity stunts,” she said.
“The soldiers that were deployed to the hospital are only there for four hours at a time, which hardly does anything for the staff shortage.”
Stokwe said the department was also dragging its feet filling critical vacancies.
“There was an agreement to decentralise the appointment level to districts, but that has not been done,” she said.
Manana said the department had also had a meeting with unions and other stakeholders yesterday.
“We had a very resourceful meeting this afternoon and from last week we have had about 3,478 healthcare workers employed as a province.
“We are advertising and cutting the red tape in employing support staff as well,” he said.
Manana also said the masks procured and supplied to the hospital met health specifications.