Nurses at Durban homeless shelters face health risks
Urgent action must be taken to protect both nurses and the homeless community they are tasked with caring for in shelters.
OVERSIGHT inspections conducted by Democratic Alliance (DA) Councillor Mmabatho Tembe, DA EThekwini Community Services Whip, and Martin Meyer MPL, to three lockdown shelters for the homeless in eThekwini recently, revealed worrying working conditions for the nurses who are deployed to the sites.
ALSO READ: Ten shelters set up for city’s homeless
Councillor Tembe said inspections at Strollers, People’s Park and the Drive-Inn Site revealed a lack of sufficient personal protective gear such as disposable masks, gloves or sanitisers and plastic aprons.
She added that nurses working at these facilities have only been screened once for Covid-19 and have not been tested for the virus.
“Not all shelters separate TB patients from the other patients, which leads to the likelihood of TB being contracted by the homeless community who are not currently infected. The nurses do not have enough wound care supplies such as gauze, cotton wool, antiseptic ointment and bandages to deal with the cleaning of wounds,” she said, adding that the only thing that nurses are currently able to do is record cases in a book and wait for a doctor to attend to matters.
Tembe said nurses are told to contact the state ambulance in case of emergency, but this is an insufficient resolution as there are long delays.
“The DA has again written to the Head of Health in the municipality, Dr Nomakhosi Gxagxisa, to urgently address this. Urgent action must be taken to protect both the nurses and the homeless community they are tasked with caring for. This unacceptable state of affairs has also been raised with the responsible Acting Deputy City and City Managers,” said Tembe.
Notice: Coronavirus reporting at Caxton Local Media aims to combat fake news
Dear reader,
As your local news provider, we have the duty of keeping you factually informed on Covid-19 developments. As you may have noticed, mis- and disinformation (also known as “fake news”) is circulating online. Caxton Local Media is determined to filter through the masses of information doing the rounds and to separate truth from untruth in order to keep you adequately informed. Local newsrooms follow a strict pre-publication fact-checking protocol. A national task team has been established to assist in bringing you credible news reports on Covid-19.
Readers with any comments or queries may contact National Group Editor Irma Green (irma@caxton.co.za) or Legal Adviser Helene Eloff (helene@caxton.co.za).
Do you want to receive news alerts via Telegram? Send us a message (not an sms) with your name and surname to 060 532 5535.
You can also join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
PLEASE NOTE: If you have signed up for our news alerts you need to save the Berea Mail Telegram number as a contact to your phone, otherwise you will not receive our alerts
Here’s where you can download Telegram on Android or Apple
