Health workers demand an end to failing healthcare services
"We have noticed a sharp deterioration in healthcare at hospitals and clinics in the province over the years. Indications of this include shortages of medicines, collapsing infrastructure, broken equipment and inadequate provision of staff."
HUNDREDS of doctors, nurses and health care workers, took to the streets of Durban on Friday in an effort to raise awareness on what they see is poor service delivery and insufficient resources in government hospitals.
The protestors marched from Botha’s Park to Durban City Hall and handed over a memorandum which includes, among other things, the shortage of specialist doctors, shortage of posts for intern doctors, lack of medicine, insufficient medical equipment and poor infrastructure.
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Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa, South African Medical Association (SAMA) KZN Coastal Branch chairperson said the protest march was aimed at creating public awareness of the poor state of public healthcare in the province.
“Through this awareness we hope to gain support from the public as we demand an end to the rapidly deteriorating delivery of healthcare services in our province.”
“This situation is getting worse every day. As healthcare professionals we are duty bound to do something about it. This situation cannot continue without meaningful intervention”
“The branch is alarmed by the Provincial Health Department’s decision to unilaterally change the conditions of employment of all doctors by freezing critical posts, creating unfunded posts, keeping some doctors unemployed, and introducing a new commuted overtime policy without adequate consultation,” Mzukwa said.
Subsequent to the introduction of the new policy, the union held a number of meetings with health officials demanding changes. A consultative process began with the National Department of Health, but the Provincial Health Department betrayed the process by commencing threatening workshops to enforce the unilateral implementation of the new policy.
“We have noticed a sharp deterioration in healthcare at hospitals and clinics in the province over the years. Indications of this include shortages of medicines, collapsing infrastructure, broken equipment and inadequate provision of staff.”
“This has led to a situation where access to healthcare services and patient dignity is compromised daily,” said Mzukwa.
The Health and Other Service Personnel Trade Union of South Africa (Hospersa) General Secretary Noel Desfontaines said:
“We support the doctors’ plea for the filling of critical posts which is affecting service delivery and contributing to the high medicolegal claims. Doctors are also human and need to be supported with adequate human capacity so they do not burn-out from working long hours with limited resources,” said Desfontaines.
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The staff shortage in KZN has hit cancer patients the worst. It is reported that there is only one oncologist in the whole of Durban and in the South Coast area.
There is also only one urologist in the whole region, with only a single part-time specialist supervising the complicated treatment of more than 400 diabetic children.
Hospital security was also raised as an issue as guards at the hospitals are not properly trained to deal with patients in a hospital environment.
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