Some community members have raised their concern on the seemingly increasing shortage of nurses at Matsulu Clinic.

According to them, this became evident when they visited the local clinic and are sent home without being attended to. They said they were told the clinic does not have enough nurses to assist them.

Sibongile Mkhomazi (28) told Lowvelder Express that she visits the facility for her chronic treatment. According to her, she was recently forced to go home after having waited for an entire day at the clinic, and she went home without receiving any assistance.

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“I arrived at the clinic early in the morning and waited for assistance for so many hours. This is not the first time I see people going home without being assisted. We are calling on our government to employ more nurses, because the nurses here tell us that they are working under pressure.”

Vusi Khoza of Matsulu shared the same sentiment as Mkhomazi. According to him, many people fail to obtain assistance at the clinic because of the slow pace. He said his mother went there on a Wednesday for treatment, but when she was eventually attended to, was told that her file had gone missing.

“We need serious intervention, because we cannot continue to be treated like this. Firstly, you will wait for many hours and when you do get in, the service is bad,” Khoza claimed.

Some of the employees at the clinic, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed there was indeed a serious staff shortage.
According to them, 14 nurses left and the positions were not filled. “We requested the department to fill the existing vacancies, but they keep on ignoring us.

“We even tried to engage the MEC for health, Sasekani Manzini, about the matter, but to no avail. That is why we are now involving the media. Whenever a nurse leaves, they do not employ a new one, they just ignore it and wait for three months so that the post can expire. Then when we complain, they tell us the posts have expired. Another thing that is bothering us is the fact that the department used our budget to employ nurses and placed them at the other clinics, while we are suffering here.”

During the provincial International Nurses Day celebration held on Thursday May 12 at Church Unlimited, the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa’s provincial chairperson, Lenah Jiyane, said nurses want to see change in their working environment.

“We are sitting here with a drastic shortage of staff, and some of the comrades are not here because they could not leave their facility as there are are only two or three working there; yet all the services are expected to be rendered by the nurses who are there.

“This is the time that we take the yoke off our shoulders and throw it down. The government has shown us the disrespect it has for the public servants, when it took issues of bargaining council, moved them from the board and took them to court. Comrades, we will know that because of obvious reasons the court will rule against us, simply because they are managed and monopolised by those who have power,” Jiyane said.

The provincial Department of Health’s spokesperson, Dumisani Malamule, dismissed the claims of a shortage of nurses at Matsulu Clinic.

“The facility does not have any staff shortage of professional nurses, based on a head count. There are 23 professional nurses and one operational manager,” he said.