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.
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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.
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