THE Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) in KwaZulu-Natal has expressed its disappointment in what it claims is the Department of Health’s poor response to the second wave of Covid-19.

Union Provincial Secretary, Mandla Shabangu, said the department reassured the public they were ready for the second wave, only to discover during the resurgence they were not.

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‘We requested a plan and a meeting to discuss and provide inputs on that plan before the resurgence. Up to date, we have not received the plan, which is irresponsible.

‘We visited different facilities to investigate the severity of problems reported by our members on the ground.

‘We discovered a number of challenges, including gross shortages of staff owing to infections and deaths due to Covid-19, inadequate and poor personal protective equipment (PPE), overcrowding, forcing staff to submit normal sick leave forms for Covid-19 cases, which is against the Department of Public Service Administration’s circular 7 of 2020,’ Shabangu said.

He added that they have shared their draft plan with the department to effectively deal with Covid-19’s second wave.

‘In our draft we recommend the urgent filling of all vacant posts caused by Covid deaths and other diseases before the end of March.

‘We recommended that the department must employ Employees’ Assistance Programme (EAP) workers in all institutions to provide them with psychological support.

‘The department must supply all employees with PPE, irrespective of whether they are in a Covid ward or not, to minimise transmissions.

‘We believe that if the department implements these recommendations, they will be able to deal with this pandemic successfully and save lives,’ he said.

The KZN Department of Health did not comment on these recommendations.

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