The centre for specialist care for mothers and babies at Dora Nginza Hospital in Nelson Mandela Bay, which was shut down last Thursday and patients evacuated to other hospitals after nurses went on a violent unprotected strike to protest their working conditions, has been reopened.
This follows an agreement reached on Friday evening between the staff and the Eastern Cape Health Department to suspend the strike, reports News 24.
The clash had seen Dr Mfundo Mabenge, head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, being held hostage and prevented from admitting pregnant women in distress, according to Daily Maverick, with the police later having to escort him out of the hospital complex.
Warnings of major crisis
In correspondence seen by Maverick Citizen, doctors have warned since July 2021 that there was a major crisis brewing in the obstetrics department because of dire staff shortages.
The maternal mortality rate and neonatal stillbirth rates have also been rising.
At the time, the waiting period for an elective C-section was 11 days, and 8-10 hours for an emergency C-section. An overworked team of obstetricians was performing between 25 and 30 emergency C-sections a day
The Department of Health blamed the delays on a 31% increase in the birth rate at the facility from 2016/2017.
Provincial health department spokesperson Yonela Dekeda said that all workers have now reported for duty to resume their responsibilities, and services were fully restored over the weekend.
At the time, she had said the strike was unprotected and the nurses were refusing to engage with senior management or return to work.
The workers had raised concerns about the overcrowding and shortage of staff at the unit, she added, however, after engagements on Friday and Saturday between the head of department, and provincial and Nelson Mandela Bay regional leaders of organised labour, “it was mutually affirmed that all stakeholders want to ensure that pregnant women are admitted to available beds”.
“The management team shared with labour at the Saturday meeting the plans that were implemented to decongest Dora Nginza Hospital,” reports News24.
She added that a theatre and 16-bedded ward has been activated at PEPH to provide additional capacity for patients requiring Level 1 care and Caesarean section intervention, and that letters of precautionary suspension issued to two shop stewards were also withdrawn.
The department is meeting with the national Department of Health and the Office of the Presidency, as they have offered support for sustainable solutions.
Dekeda added that the department would address the “increased demand for care in this geographic service area”, which includes the trauma burden and mental health care needs.
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