Friday, 29 March, 2024
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Nurses union demands end to 'austerity measures'

Government’s austerity measures in the health sector will destroy lives, says the Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union (Ynitu).

The union, which represents nurses and healthcare support staff in the public and private sectors, intervened to ensure that government renewed some of the contracts of healthcare workers hired in Gauteng during the Covid-19 pandemic. “Under no circumstances will Ynitu allow the Department of Health to use and then discard healthcare workers. We are not syringes, we don’t belong in sluice rooms.”

General secretary Lerato Mthunzi said Ynitu was demanding “an end to the austerity measures crippling the healthcare system and worsening conditions for the working class and the poor who depend on these services … The government’s senseless decision to implement cutbacks during a pandemic is choking our healthcare system.”

The Gauteng DoH renewed about 6 000 workers’ contracts after Ynitu intervened, but 2 500 are still without jobs. These are workers who were placed at district hospitals and clinics. Only tertiary and central hospital workers have got their jobs back.

Ynitu president Rich Sicina said the union had complained about the shortage of staff, materials and resources even before the pandemic. “Then Covid-19 happened and they employed many healthcare professionals under Covid contracts. So now that they believe Covid-19 is no longer rampant and killing people, they want to release them and they are citing a lack of budget.”

Sicina said the provincial health department was given an initial budget of R2.2bn. However, this year, it has been cut in half.

“Go to any township – Katlehong, Krugersdorp, Soweto, Mamelodi – and many community members will tell you about treatment in our facilities. It’s a known secret that the department of health Gauteng is a complete mess.”

“We are not saying employ a million nurses, we are saying employ enough nurses, employ enough doctors, employ enough healthcare workers on the ground – your porters, cleaners, pharmacists, etc. – because we find our nurses doing all these jobs.”

Mthunzi also called on the government to change how it deals with nurses’ education and placement. “The department trains the community service nurses but doesn’t employ them. So the purpose of training these healthcare workers is because the government needs them in the system, but come time when they must be employed, the department claims that they do not have vacant funded posts,” she said.

Spokesperson Kwara Kekana acknowledged that austerity measures influenced the Gauteng health department’s ability to keep on some of the healthcare workers.

“The provincial department would have loved to retain all temporary Covid-19 appointed staff. However, the current grant provided by the Gauteng provincial treasury to pay for compensation of temporary employees is inadequate to keep all workers in all regional and district hospitals,” Kekana said.

New Frame report

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