Hospital staff claim racism, intimidation

ALLEGATIONS of racism and intimidation at Greys Hospital in Pietermaritzburg have been raised by staff who have written a letter to the provincial Health Department.

The department said it had called a meeting with the hospital’s management.

In a letter addressed to the MEC, black staff claimed that white staff were being favoured and got away with making mistakes at the hospital.

Black staff also claimed that doctors would bully and swear at them.

“How is it okay to swear at people in an official meeting and nothing gets said? How is it okay to carry a knife into a meeting and wave it around to make a point or mix his coffee? We have watched and endured institutional racism. The white staff get away with murder, essentially, and are not held accountable for their errors. Black staff are lambasted in front of colleagues, patients and nursing staff so as to discredit them. Institutional racism operates in a much more insidious and often less immediately obvious way to perpetuate racial disadvantage. White registrars are taught and given private tutorials to aid them in their exams and the black registrars are continuously told they will not make it,” the letter said.

The spokesperson for the KwaZulu-Natal Health Department, Noluthando Nkosi, said they were aware of the matter and viewed it in an extremely serious light.

“Racism is a crime against humanity and goes against the basic tenets of democracy. It has no place in this department. According to the hospital chief executive, these matters had not been brought to his attention – as per normal workplace grievance registration protocol – until recently. He has already had an engagement with certain staff members about it,” she said.

Nkosi said they would meet hospital management, representatives of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, as well as registrars and the consultants implicated and affected staff.

“We will not hesitate to take the most stringent action possible against any individuals found guilty.”