Nurses at Jeppestown Clinic in downtown Johannesburg have pleaded for more security, saying one unarmed security guard is inadequate at a facility where staff have, in the past, been held hostage by patients, been threatened by a knife-wielding drunk, and, more latterly, where “hitman” threats have been directed at one of the nurses.
TimesLIVE reports that during a site visit last week by Johannesburg MMC for Public Safety Mgcini Tshwaku and MMC for Social Development & Health Ennie Makhafola, the nurses expressed fears about their safety, adding that patients also manage to enter the facility with weapons.
On weekends, particularly, only four nurses are usually on duty, with an unarmed guard at the main entrance.
Jeppestown Clinic attends to about 10 000 patients every month, but the MMCs were told that due to non-payment of overtime, nurses rotated shifts on weekends.
One of the nurses said that during the week, even if they were threatened by patients, they could still scream, and other nurses would be able to help them, but with so few staff on the weekend roster, it was different and they were extremely nervous.
She said arriving patients were not searched. “Security is the big issue… We are not safe on Saturdays,” she said, adding that one man told her that he knew the car she was driving.
“I know that you are the one who is opening the clinic – I will go back to the hostel and call izinkabi (hitmen) and we will deal with you,” he had apparently told her.
She added that security was slack and the threats were a common occurrence.
“We won’t come on Saturdays if there is no security to search patients. Our security doesn’t search them; they just walk in. No one asks them who they are or where they are going,” she said.
Tshwaku said that from next month, the city would tighten security and boost manpower.
“We will provide more guards and give them metal detectors. We will have a search and seizure. I am having a meeting with the director of security within the JMPD… they have given us the hotspots. After 1 October, we are going to have armed security. Whatever nonsense they are doing, they mustn’t do it inside this clinic,” he said.
On complaints from staff that Operation Dudula members were stationing themselves outside the clinic and demanding documentation from people – and turning patients away – he said the city would “liaise with the provincial Police Commissioner and the immigration unit from the Department of Home Affairs”.
“We need to tell them people are impersonating them and that they must come to the party,” he said.
Tshwaku said that no one should be denied health services, including locals and foreigners. He said what Operation Dudula was doing was illegal and inhumane, and if they were not happy with the laws, they could approach the courts and challenge the law.
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