Improve security at health facilities or expect more killings

AS MORE and more patients get killed by intruders in our health facilities, the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) is saddened to warn that more patients are likely to fall victims of shootings and attacks in the country’s health facilities due to poor safety and security.

This warning is in the context of the shooting and killing of a 47-yearold patient at Clairwood Hospital south of Durban on Friday evening.

This will be the case for many patients, of course, unless the national Department of Health comes up with a concrete plan on strengthening the safety in our health facilities across the country, as the current outsourcing of security has proven to be a great disaster.

Many armed intruders gain entry in our health facilities with great ease and they cause damage successfully and disappear without any trace.

Frankly, Denosa is tired of saying the same thing whenever incidents of this nature occur.

This has resulted in low morale among health workers in health facilities as they work fearfully.

Denosa has said many times that because security is such a critical service in health facilities, the following are non-negotiables:

◆ In-sourcing of security services.

◆ Boom gates installation in all facilities.

◆ Functional metal detectors for security personnel at all the gates.

◆ Installation of CCTV cameras on various fronts with functional monitoring screens.

◆ Installation of panic buttons in all sections of the facilities.

Currently, almost all of these prerequisites are non-existent, and that is why there is escalation of security breaches in facilities, which lead to both patients and health workers becoming victims.

The national Department of Health has been quiet on this critical issue, and has left provinces to fumble, often at the expense of patients livelihoods.