Local nurses protest over safety, difficult working environments
“The fourth wave is knocking and nurses are scared on what will happen with their lives.”
A protest held in Pretoria on Thursday sought to highlight the challenges nurses in the capital were experiencing.
These included robberies, continuous water and electricity supply interruptions, as well as other issues.
Protesters claimed the challenges were affecting the delivery of critical healthcare services at local clinics in areas, especially at trauma and maternity wards.
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) Tshwane regional chairperson Bongani Richard Banda said the organisation had been engaging the district management at local clinics on the issues.
He said local clinics were often short-staffed, lacked resources and had also become less conducive working environments.
“During lockdown, nurses were at the core of the pandemic. They were expected to be at the forefront to deliver services to the community.”
Banda said the pandemic had increased the numbers of patients who were seen on a daily basis, leading to nurses struggling from burn-out, exhaustion and fatigue.
“Staff shortages meant the current nurses are expected to overwork themselves to cover the services and assist their communities with basic health needs without being remunerated and acknowledged by the district.”
Banda said personal protective equipment (PPE) was also a problem.
“Nurses are given one mask and are expected to wear it the whole day and at times they overlap with it to the next day. Some clinics don’t have PPE at all.”
He said nurses needed the health department to employ more and better equipped security as nurses were not safe at various Tshwane health facilities.
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He said health employees were being robbed, mugged and threatened by criminals.
“The district has shown us that they don’t care by being ignorant to safety issues that affect nursing and have never bothered to ensure that nurses are protected from criminals masquerading as patients inside the facilities and hospitals.”
The memorandum was received by the South African Nursing Council senior manager of Tshwane health district, Modise Makhudu.
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