Responding to nursing unions' anger over Limpopo staff shortages and crumbling healthcare infrastructure, Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba's office says hospitals are operating well and that a 33% nursing vacancy rate cannot be described as a “crisis”.
Nursing unions are concerned by staff shortages, crumbling healthcare infrastructure and more, but Limpopo Health maintains that there’s no crisis in the province, reports Health-e News. Calling Limpopo Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba “incompetent” and “causing havoc in Limpopo provincial health”, the Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union (YNITU) is taking the provincial health department to task for what they call a crisis in Limpopo’s public healthcare system. YNITU has called for Ramathuba to step down as part of the trade union’s radical mandate. However, the Limpopo Health has labelled the calls for the removal of the MEC as unfortunate and irresponsible, saying the organisation uses the MEC as political leverage to gain legitimacy and visibility in Limpopo.
Lerato Madumo, president of YNITU, says they have had enough with the escalating problems at public health facilities in Limpopo, and lays the blame squarely on the Health MEC’s shoulders. According to Madumo, YNITU recently handed over a memorandum of their grievances to the Health Ministry, after the local department of health failed to provide a senior official to collect the document. Some of the demands listed by the organisation include the hiring of nurses, ending the outsourcing of healthcare workers and the removal of Limpopo Health MEC. Madumo says that the shortage of nurses in the province is an issue the government has yet to fix.
“For quite some time, we have pleaded with the department of health to hire midwives and advanced midwives in maternity facilities because without adequate nursing personnel, allied workers and support staff, 24-hour clinics should cease to exist,” she is quoted in the report as saying. “Our nurses deal with trauma daily, and this affects them on all levels, but the Limpopo department of health doesn’t seem to care. We also want the department to prioritise the safety of nurses, and when there’s incidences at public healthcare facilities to stop blaming nurses without any prior investigation of reported cases of misconduct and negligence,” she adds.
Lesiba Monyaki, provincial chair of Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa), says they have raised various issues with the provincial health department for years but no one seems to care — and nurses are the ones left to suffer. “Our nurses are not safe at public clinics and hospitals, and we have pleaded with the department of health to consider installing electric fences, as they have failed to beef up security personnel. If you go to some of our rural clinics you will be shocked to find only two security personnel on duty, which isn’t enough considering how several criminal incidents have occurred at public healthcare facilities,” he says.
Monyaki says: “We have grown tired of talking about our issues, as nothing is done to address the situation. Only clinics which are situated along the main roads are renovated, but the rest — in deep rural areas — are left old and dilapidated. No one seems to care, putting the lives of both patients and nurses in danger. We have so many qualified nurses who are unemployed, but ironically, the department is still experiencing a severe shortage of nurses at its hospitals and clinics.”
Responding to demands by YNITU, spokesperson for Limpopo Health, Neil Shikwambana said: “… Under MEC Ramathuba, maternal deaths have been reduced drastically, malaria cases have been lowered, and hospitals are functioning under her leadership. The vacancy rate for nurses in the province is standing at 33%, which means that where we are supposed to have ten nurses, we have seven. Is that a crisis?
In June, Limpopo Health let go approximately 540 health professionals who have received funding from the department, including medical doctors, professional nurses, pharmacists and allied health professionals.
[link url="https://health-e.org.za/2020/02/24/phophimustfall-nurses-trade-union-calls-for-limpopo-health-mecs-removal/"]Full Health-e News report[/link]