Medics claim assault by striking Nehawu nurses at KwaDukuza
Their ambulance was also initially prevented from entering the hospital to admit a critically sick teenager.
Paramedics claim they were assaulted by striking nurses this morning (Wednesday) at a KwaDukuza hospital while trying to deliver a young child for treatment, but this was denied by a union official.
National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) members are on day three of a national strike over wages, demanding a 10% increase.
Nehawu members took to protest action following government’s decision to unilaterally implement a 3% wage increase, which nurses have rejected.
Apart from the 10% increase, union members are also demanding a housing subsidy.
IPSS Medical Rescue’s Samantha Meyrick said they were initially prevented from entering the General Justice Gizenga Mpanza Hospital grounds while transporting a 13-year-old child from KwaDukuza.
The child, understood to be in a critical condition, was hurt several days ago and paramedics feared he had developed sepsis.
“Our ambulance was attacked by striking nurses at the entrance,” said Meyrick, adding the protestors attempted to remove the teenager from the ambulance by force.
She said one of their medics had been punched in the face.
The hospital’s Nehawu secretary, Sandile Ntazi, denied the ambulance was attacked or that the assault took place, calling it “a misunderstanding”.
He said they merely stopped the ambulance at the gate to check whether or not it was transporting hospital medical staff into the facility.
IPSS was eventually let through to admit the teen, but Meyrick said they were then prevented from leaving the hospital grounds.
Only once local security and municipal peace officers arrived were they allowed to leave.
Meyrick said no case of assault has yet been opened but their employee was urged to do so.
Ntazi said the protest action had so far been peaceful.
“We will not return to work until our demands are met. We are angry, go look at the cost of living. The workers are earning peanuts. We are going back to the Apartheid era where salaries are imposed by the government,” he said.
The KZN Department of Health has been contacted for comment.
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