With reports of the death of at least five patients last week who were scheduled to undergo operations, and protesters blocking an ambulance transporting a critically ill child, the IFP has called on KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu to present a detailed plan on how she intends to address the ongoing healthcare strike.

According to information available to The Witness, the strike has not been officially disputed by the department. The department has also been silent on the number of patients who have died in KZN hospitals since the beginning of the strike on March 6.

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Last week the newspaper reported that five people — three patients in Greys Hospital and a seven-months pregnant woman in Northdale — died on Tuesday and Wednesday.

An IFP health portfolio committee member, Ncamisile Kwanya, says: “We believe that patients who have been booked for operations have been affected by the strike, and have been left to fend for themselves.”

“It is incumbent upon MEC Simelane-Zulu to tell the public what plans are in place to ensure that people who have missed their bookings will still be able to get the necessary operations. The strike has worsened the already deteriorating KZN health system, which is in dire need of an overhaul.”

Nkwanyana says while they recognise the right of workers to strike, they are concerned about the many patients who have allegedly been denied access to medical care.

“The right to strike should not infringe upon the right to health.

“We are further concerned about the atrocious behaviour of some workers who seem to have lost their Ubuntu, after they blocked an ambulance transporting a critically ill child to Gizenga Mpanza Hospital. Such conduct must be condemned in the strongest possible terms,” she says.

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In a statement posted on Friday, the department said the situation (in healthcare facilities) was beginning to calm down, with signs of things returning to normal in most affected healthcare facilities, except for some facilities where a low number of health workers showed up for work.

Simelane-Zulu said that health workers are prohibited from striking.

“Although workers have a right to protest, those who are classified as essential workers are prohibited to go on strike due to the nature and sensitivity of their work and responsibilities.

“If you look at other professions such as teaching, teachers can afford to go on strike and later draw up a catch-up plan, such as teaching during school holidays, or have night classes and so on. But with healthcare services, once you lose a life there is no catch-up plan.

“The health sector is different. That is why you even see during wars emergency personnel and their cars are protected because they are there to save lives.”

Department head Dr Sandile Tshabalala called for grieving families to bear with the department in cases where post-mortems are delayed.

“We are faced with an extraordinary situation, and [we] are trying by all means to expedite the completion of post-mortems. However, due to current circumstances, there may be instances where we will move bodies from one facility to others nearby.

“We are appealing to families who’ve lost their loved ones to understand that this would be part of our way of assisting them to get the mortal human remains of their loved ones as soon as possible,” he says.

Yesterday, Nehawu said they could not jump into a new wage bargaining round for 2023/24 when the employer has effectively ‘just unilaterally imposed’ a wage cut of four percent in the pay-packet of an average public servant.

“At stake is not just the wage dispute of 2022/23, it is also collective bargaining given the unilateralism that is now prevailing in the public sector.”

“As Nehawu, we want to put the employer on notice that we are now in consultation with our lawyers over this imposition of the three percent for the 2022/23 financial year [which was unilaterally offered to employees in 2021].”

“The employer arrogantly demanded that we must drop the dispute process and return to the council to engage in the 2023/24 public service wage negotiations. This is another demonstration of how far the government is prepared to undermine and collapse collective bargaining and dispute resolution mechanisms,” said regional secretary Mazwi Ngubane.

The DA’s portfolio committee member, Edwin Baptie, says Simalane-Zulu was not forthcoming with the number of people who have died in the provincial healthcare centres since the strike started.

“We had a portfolio meeting on Friday and the department said nobody has died.

“[Soon] I’ll have the number [of deaths]. We want to know how many people have died during the strike that could have been avoided,” he says.

Simelane-Zulu and the department’s spokespeople could not be reached for comment yesterday.