Nurses and other staff hired during the Covid-19 pandemic in Gauteng and the Western Cape now stand to lose their jobs as funding dries out.
In the Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness (WCDHW) will reduce nurses and bed capacity at its Covid-19 field hospital facility in Brackenfell at the end of March, as pandemic funding trickles to an end.
The hospital was originally established and funded as a dedicated Covid-19 facility, and played an important role in supporting the provincial government’s emergency response to the pandemic, said department spokesperson Mark van der Heever
The department had not yet determined the number of nurses to be reduced, reports News24.
While the hospital will no longer specifically cater to the needs of the pandemic, it will be repurposed as a 128-bed general transitional care facility.
“The department is sourcing its budget internally to maintain its operations. However, as it now has fewer beds than the 338 Covid-19 field hospital, it thus also requires fewer staff,” said Van der Heever.
He added that the department was consulting employees and organised labour about the staffing plan, and “once completed, we will complete the recruitment and selection processes for the new facility”.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, about 200 healthcare workers belonging to the National Public Service Workers Union (NPSWU) picketed outside the Western Cape legislature in a bid to have their voices heard regarding their dissatisfaction with the department’s decision to reduce staffing.
NPSWU spokesperson Zolisa Menze said a memorandum was handed over to a representative of Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo.
“We are gathered here to deliver a memorandum … not because of Covid-19, … but that the Government of the Western Cape, especially the Department of Health & Wellness, seeks to take away the very last bread we have,” said Menze.
“At the end of February 2023, the employees here received letters terminating their contracts of employment effective from 31 March 2023. This comes after promises that their contracts would be renewed on 1 April 2023.”
Menze said the staff were in a “heartbreaking” predicament.
“We cry because we, the staff of Brackengate intermediate care facility, are the heroes of the pandemic and were the first who stood up to help the people of South Africa during a time of global crises and need,” he said.
He said staff put their own lives and those of their families and loved ones at risk, going beyond the call of duty and working day and night.
ANC deputy chief whip in the provincial legislature Muhammad Khalid Sayed joined the picket and called on the government to intervene.
“Our healthcare workers are dedicated heroes and heroines who were at the frontline of the pandemic saving lives. These protests tie in with the broader protest around decent wages and the wage negotiations undertaken by the National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu).
“Sadly, these scarce skills are now being gobbled up in the Middle East because these people are not able to apply their skills here in the Western Cape due to a lack of jobs,” Sayed said.
And further north, up in Gauteng, the Health Department will use the R600m allocated to the Covid-19 compensation of employees’ budget to “retain as many critical contract staff as possible”, and hospitals have been asked to submit their needs according to priority, said Health & Wellness MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko.
Professional and support staff, including about 113 medical personnel, were contracted for 12 months. Their contacts end on 31 March, reports TimesLIVE.
Nkomo-Ralehoko said her department had asked the provincial budget committee to retain the current Covid-19 Compensation of Employees budget of R1.1bn, but an amount of R600m had since been allocated for the 2023/24 financial year.
“Considering the reduction of the current budget and the competing priorities across service centres, there is a need to reprioritise the capacity requirements to optimise the limited resources.
“There is an agreement on the prioritisation of clinical posts across all hospitals and the process to advertise available posts in line with the allocated budget. The process will be fast-tracked,” she added.
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