FALSE BAY
TUESDAY 23 June 2020 | Tel: 021 910 6500 | Email: post@peoplespost.co.za | Website: www.peoplespost.co.za
People’s Post
HEALTH HEALTH CARE CARE
‘Nurses’ voices must be heard’ RACINE EDWARDES RACINE.EDWARDES@MEDIA24.COM @RAEEDWARDES
O
n Friday 19 June, False Bay Hospital (FBH) health care staff marched from the facility to the intersection of Kommetjie Road and Seventeenth Avenue to protest their current working conditions. Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa) representative Songezo Nompunga, who is also a professional male nurse at the hospital, says staff members are facing trying times. In addition to a shortage of staff, the protesters claim there is a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and flu vaccines for staff and a growing concern regarding decontamination at the hospital. “We have 70% agency staff working here and only 30% permanent staff. So now, after they opened community testing stations, all the agency nurses were contracted there,” says Nompunga. Operating with about 30 nurses only, he says they often work in shifts of three to four and are expected to tend to more than 150 patients daily. Eleanor Roberts, Denosa provincial chair,
says she supports the staff at FBH but wants to highlight that the lack of personnel at the hospital is a challenge that existed even before the Covid-19 pandemic put further strain on an already understaffed industry. Denosa claims the shortage in PPE is causing the Covid-19 infection rate among health care staff to increase. When nurses who test positive for the virus are required to go into quarantine, staff numbers drop further. Natalie Watlington, spokesperson for the Western Cape department of health for the south-western sub-structures, confirms that 15 staff members tested positive. “And we are grateful that so far all are recovering. On return to work they are offered a full range of support.” But Roberts claims, without the necessary PPE, more nurses will become infected. Denosa is fighting for head-to-toe, plastic PPE. “Our people cannot go to work with just their aprons on in the Covid-19 wards,” she explains. “Our nurses are afraid for the patients, for the community, for South Africa. I made a pledge which says the health of my patient is my first priority, but I didn’t come here to die. We have the Occupational Health and Safety Act that protects us. If I am not guaranteed a safe environment when
I put my feet into False Bay Hospital, then I am not going in because I’m not going to expose myself and my family and South Africa to this virus,” Roberts adds. In response, Watlington says comprehensive infection prevention and control measures are implemented and Covid-19 patients are treated in a separate unit. “Management, assisted by the False Bay Hospital Trust, has ensured that the recommended PPE for each risk area is available at all times and availability is strictly monitored as we are aware of the global shortage. When appropriate, deep cleaning according to the recommended protocols is immediately carried out. All areas are also cleaned often to maintain hygiene.” Watlington adds that the allocation of flu vaccines at False Bay Hospital has been fully utilised and staff were prioritised to receive the vaccine. She says the vacancy rate for the hospital is only at 7% and the process of filling vacant posts is expedited in all cases. “FBH is currently experiencing more than double the workload they have seen over the past five years and although there are challenges with filling nursing posts, we have a network of agencies for assistance with fill-
ing these posts to continue maintaining nurses. We understand that this is stressful for our nurses who are also working extra overtime and courageously caring for patients despite the risk to themselves and their families,” Watlington says. However, Roberts claims the regulations governing overtime are being overlooked by management at many hospitals. “There is a policy in our department that says you can work 30% overtime. That 30% means two extra shifts in the month. But in some instances, we hear of management increasing that amount to four extra shifts. Our nurses don’t earn a lot of money, so they will just go for it – it’s exploitation.” Nurses are also being stigmatised, Roberts says. Staff are being shunned by communities as carriers of the virus. “There were instances where the community have shown their judgement against nurses working in the health care department. They think that we are bringing the viruses to the taxi’s when we go home. We had an incident in Mitchells Plain where one of the nurses was not allowed into a shop because they thought she had the coronavirus. She was humiliated in front of all the people in the shop.”
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